Delayed Magnetic Attraction
by NaotoTainaka
Summary: We've all gone to our separate ways, and time separated us further. We're all so far now, we're not acquaintance, but we are not the best of friends we used to be. But YOU, you who were the farthest away from us, how is it that you're able to pull me in, attracts me into something I never expected to be? (Adult Life, Canon-verse, and Rating will change to M later)


**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back! I'M FINALLY BACK! With a NicoMaki fanfiction this time!**

 **Please note that I make some references to Nico's and Maki's School Idol Diary a lot, so at some point, if you haven't read'em, you won't understand where some of the setting came from, since it differs from the anime a bit.**

 **Which means, I mixed up School Idol Diary's and Anime universe for this story.**

 **Read it if you can, there's english translation for Nico's and Maki's online, it is GOOD!**

 **Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this.**

* * *

Beads of sweat began to trickle down my forehead, drenching my face, but I ignored it.

My lungs began to feel heavy and screaming for some air, but I ignored it again.

My muscles began to burn and ache all over, but I ignored it too.

A big, wide smile etched on my face as I made a twirl, causing my puffy skirt to raised up a little, teasing the audience with a little more sight to see, only for it to fall down gracefully, covering my thighs again.

Lights began to move and change wildly around me, indicating the forthcoming climax of an incredibly long performance on top of one stage. I closed my eyes for a second, basking in the spotlights, basking in the attention of thousands pairs of eyes in front of me.

Then with a silent huff, I opened my eyes as I stop twirling and then posed cutely with my trademark sign.

"Nico Nico nii!" I exclaimed with pure excitement and happiness, completely ignoring my body and my vocal chords that were screaming for some rest. At the moment, adrenaline dulled my exhaustion completely, although in the back of my head I knew that the next day wouldn't be all rainbows and sunshine for me.

But I was willing to die tomorrow if I could perform with a bang today, anything for those who came all the way just to watch me dancing and singing.

That, is what an idol should do, to please the audience, to create big smiles of happiness upon their faces.

As the music finally came to a stop, I took a deep breath and listen to the sound of clapping and cheering. Listening to those sounds around me fills me with an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach, and it made my breath shaky.

I blew kisses to the crowd as I exclaimed a very enthusiastic thank yous into the mic in my hand, this caused the audience's cheering to get louder, and I smiled widely at this.

Another successful concert for the number one idol, Yazawa Nico!

* * *

"Ughh..."

I gritted my teeth as I sat up on my bed, groaning in pain at every small move I did. I rub my eyes while grimacing to clear any fog in my vision, then I look around for my alarm clock on the bedside table, to find out that it was almost lunch, it seemed that I overslept.

Seeing the time made me panic, so I threw my blanket away from my body and stood up abruptly, ignoring the awful aches that I could feel all over my body. I was about to run to the bathroom to get ready for today's photo shoot, but then I froze, the moment my brain finally woke up completely I realized that I did not have any schedule for today, because my manager told me that she cancelled any activity for three days so that I could fully rest my body.

Right, my manager insisted that I were to rest after my biggest concert yet at Saitama Super Arena yesterday.

I stared blankly into nothing. This felt...weird, for some reason.

For years, I was so used to waking up early everyday to get ready for a tight schedule that it felt weird to have a day off or two. And I was so used to working until I knew for sure that what I did made some difference to my name in the showbiz. I was determined to keep raising my name so much that I haven't even give a 'break' any thought. I even quit college just so that I could focus on being an idol and made myself big.

And apparently my workaholic attitude actually annoyed my manager, I recall that last night she said something about a dead idol being no use to the industry and the fans.

A small smile appeared on my face, it seemed that my manager was implying about how she cares about my well-being.

This might felt weird for me but, I guess it was time for me to rest a little while basking in the glory of finally making a huge name in the showbiz. I mean, I just performed at one of the biggest stage; Saitama Super Arena, with the tickets sold out completely only in a span of couple of days, it was certainly the fruit of my hard work these years.

I looked up to the ceiling, imagining it was the sky with a big smile on my lips.

 _Dad, your daughter is finally able to make a bunch of people smile. Are you proud? Have I lived up to my name yet?_

Giggling to myself, I felt butterflies in my stomach just thinking about how far I have gotten, from a wishful kid that kept losing in auditions because others were either have a certain influence or more money, to a real idol that can please a huge crowd at one of the biggest stage in Japan.

 _Well then, now I, Yazawa Nico, shall do her best to rest so that I can make myself even bigger after my break!_

Huffing while I was crossing my arms, I felt determination burn in my entire body.

Then I blinked, realizing that I felt pretty chilly. Also realizing that there was a lack of fabric brushing my arms, I look down, only to find myself in my underwear. I scratched my head silently as I glanced around my body, staring at the heat patches all over my body. It appeared that I fell asleep right after I put on some heat patches on my body, I guess I was that tired last night.

I began to look around, grimacing at how messy my apartment had become, my clothes scattered here and there, my bed unmade, and my furniture have collected some dust. It was obvious that I've neglected cleaning it in a while.

Shaking my head, I decided to make myself a mini schedule for the day. Certainly the number one idol Yazawa Nico couldn't be caught dead with a messy apartment, what would my fans say if they knew that their idol was messy?

Sliding off my bra and panties from my slim body, I walked towards the bathroom. I wanted to take some hot bath first to relax my muscles before starting to clean my apartment. Then after that, maybe I'd do some cooking that would last me for a whole day, like curry.

Throwing my underwear into the hamper, I grabbed my towel before heading into the bathroom.

I went to the bathtub to turn the tap and let the warm water filled it before I went to the sink to brush my teeth, as I did so I stared at my own reflection in the mirror. I looked like a mess, my hair in particular was in a bad shape because I didn't take a bath last night, so my hair was still curly and sticky due to the curling iron and hairspray. Sleeping in with that kinda hair resulting in a bird nest of a hair, and it didn't look attractive in the slightest.

The thought made me frowned, I was glad that the paparazzi weren't crazy enough to try to take pictures into my room, or else they would have seen that the cute Yazawa Nico had transformed into a witch or some sort.

After I've done brushing my teeth, I took off the heat patches upon my body and threw it away into the bin quickly, before I approached the shower and sat on the small chair in front of it. I turned the tap and sighed when I could feel warm droplets of water touching my aching body.

I began to pour shampoo onto my long, black hair, then washed it as I massage my scalp while I'm at it. After rinsing the shampoo off my hair, I grabbed my soap and began to wash my body.

After I finished washing my body, I turned off the shower then glanced at the bathtub. I hummed happily when I saw the tub had been filled nicely. I could see the steam around it, it looked very inviting for my exhausted body.

Without waiting any longer, I turned off the tap for the tub, entered it and sat down, drowning my body in a warm water. It was just hot enough to relax my muscles.

I couldn't help but threw my head back and moaned in pleasure, it just felt so comfortable. It was so comfortable that I could just close my eyes and drift away into the dreamland, but I knew that I shouldn't or else I would catch a cold, so I opened my eyes and mentally reminding myself that I shouldn't fall asleep.

Five minutes in, and I found myself began nodding off, but I still tried really hard to keep myself awake, because it would be bad if I get sick. But a couple of minutes later, when I almost couldn't let myself stay awake anymore, my ears caught some ringing of my phone coming from outside of my bathroom. This caused me to become wide awake and sat up straight in the tub, I raised an eyebrow in wonder.

 _Who's calling me? Is it important?_

Thinking that it might be, I drained the tub and stepped out of it. I quickly grabbed my towel to dry myself off before wrapping it around me, then I walk in a haste towards where the noise came from.

I entered my bedroom, glancing around to look for my phone. When I found it on the bedside table, I went to it and grabbed it. Unfortunately, just when I was about to press the green button, the call ended, this made me frown.

I stared at the ID of the caller just now, and then widen my eyes. I was expecting my manager's name on the caller's ID, but it turned out that it wasn't.

It was Ayase Eli. My best friend and former colleague of my old school idol group, μ's. It had been awhile since the last time she contacted me, because she was busy with modeling work.

Yeah, after μ's disbanded and Nozomi, Eli, and I graduated from high school, Eli accepted the job offer to become a model from that person that tried to scout her at that one fashion event μ's attended.

Right now, Eli had become a famous model due to her quarter Russian heritage, that fact caught many people's attention. Not to mention that Eli was pretty, stylish, and had a good body proportion, she was the perfect model material.

Anyways, why would she call me?

I immediately called Eli to find out what she wanted to talk to me about. It had been a long time since she had the time to contact me. I put my phone to my wet ear and waited for Eli to pick up the call.

My eyes lit up when it went through, "Eli?" I called.

 _"Nico! Oh my god it has been so long!"_ I couldn't help but smile when I could finally hear my best friend's voice after a long while.

"I know, right? That's why I called back immediately after you left me a call, so what's up?"

 _"Ah...yeah, about that, I was about to ask if you're free today?"_

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Why? You wanna hang out?"

 _"Yes! Since I only have one more photo_ _shoot for today, and then nothing else to do, I decided to call you and ask if you want to hang out with me. It's been a long time after all."_

My eyes wandered around my messy apartment, well, there goes that plan to clean it, "I'm free today, actually. So sure, let's hang out!"

 _"Harasho, and while we're at it, we can celebrate for your biggest concert yesterday. Congratulations, Nico, you've officially became one of the greatest idol in Japan."_

I blushed and giggled, "Of course! Who do you think you are talking to?"

I could hear Eli laughing a little, _"Well, how about we meet at TMB? I'm going to have_ _the_ _photo_ _shoot there today, and I know that it's close to your place, so..."_

"Sure, sure, at what time?"

 _"How about at three o'clock? Just go straight to studio B, so you won't be like a lost puppy, wandering aimlessly at TMB's corridors."_

I scoffed loudly, "I'm 22, don't treat me like a kid, Eli."

Again, I heard Eli laughed, _"So, see you later, Nico?"_

"Yeah, see you later, Eli."

For some reason, talking to Eli reminded me of the times when I was still in μ's, playing and dancing around like nothing else matters in the world but us nine, and our happiness when we were together, and it made my eyes soften.

My eyes caught a glimpse of an old picture on my bedside table. It was a picture of a certain last performance by a certain group.

 _I miss μ's._

* * *

My hand reached out to a doorknob and turned it, before entering the room cautiously.

Blinking bright lights blinded my eyes for a second, it was so bright that I had to blink a couple of times and squinted my eyes so that I could focus it again. My eyebrows arched up and my eyes widen at the scene in front of me.

There, was the blonde girl I've been friends with for years, posing in such a way that the only words I could come up with was 'elegant' and 'sexy'. She posed in a certain way to highlight her best features and assets.

Eli wore a stylish, body fit grey suit, and a white shirt with a couple of buttons undone, teasing the audience with a glimpse of her cleavage. She sat down on a bar stool with a bar as a background. She crossed her leg in a way so that you could see the shape of her long legs, and she was leaning on the bar, arching her back to further highlight her assets. Her hair was undone and a little bit messy, it was covering part of her shoulders, and some just fell freely on her back.

"Whoa..."

Hate to admit it, but there was no way I could ever top that.

I frowned, I felt a little bit of jealousy crept up within me. I wished I had a body like hers, but at least my body was not as small as it was in my high school days anymore. I still wasn't endowed like Eli, but I grew a little more since then, I no longer had that pathetic 71cm bust, it had grew for five and a half centimeters.

My height also grew around two centimeters. And since I've been in the idol business for years now, I had quite bit of a muscle, thanks to all that dancing and physical training. I wasn't ripped, but it was noticeable if I wore a bikini.

So yeah, I wasn't that far behind Eli in term of sexiness!

I unconsciously crossed my arms and huffed, audibly. That caused the photographer and a couple of crews to stop their activities and snapped their heads towards me, eyes widen a little bit in surprise when they saw me.

 _Woops, did they hear me?_

I scratched my head and bowed to them apologetically.

Then I heard a loud gasp, I blinked and looked at the source of the noise.

"Nico!" Eli called me as she sat straight on the stool, then she waved at me, she looked really thrilled to see me.

I gave her a questioning look before I nodded my head towards the crews. She raised an eyebrow for a sec, then stared at the crews questioningly as she pointed down at the bar setting.

I smiled when I saw the photographer gave a thumbs up and he said, "We're all good, we already got what we needed." Eli's face lit up at this and stepped down from the stool, then she walked gracefully towards me with a big smile on her face.

For some reason, she reminded me of a fox.

"Hey, Eli."

She stood in front of me, tapping my shoulder hardly, "Hey!"

I couldn't stop myself from wincing and whining in pain when she did so. She just had to hit where it aches real bad.

Eli gasped and pulled her hand back, "Oh, I-I'm sorry, muscle pain?"

Without saying anything but a whimper, I nodded weakly, rubbing gently where she patted real hard to ease the horrible agony that was searing through my upper body. Eli gave me a worried look, but I just forced a smile and gave her my trademark pose, muscle pain was nothing to Nico!

Eli chuckled as she shook her head in amusement, "Well then, let's go have some lunch at a cafe nearby, some drinks and food might be just the thing to replenish your energy." She paused a little, glancing at herself, "Oh, but I need to change first, you're okay with waiting outside the changing room a little, right?"

I waved dismissively, "Don't worry about it, I'm not going to pass out anytime soon." Eli chuckled once again and led the way to her changing room. Once we were there, I waited just beside the door and leaned my back on the wall, spacing out slightly.

While I was spacing out, I thought about the fact that both Eli and I have gone so far since our time in μ's. We were still innocent and naive back then, unaware of the darkness in the showbiz world. Being a school idol was just the tip of the iceberg, we didn't need to think far too deeply into what we were doing.

Delving deeper into the show business threw all those naivety away, due to the unknown and cruel world that awaits. Being an idol of any kind was not just a matter of passion, it was not just a matter of skill, it was a matter of connection, luck, and influence.

Your skill did not matter if you didn't have any of those three. Nobody cared how much skill you had until you had the luck, influence, and the connection to show it off to. I was pretty fortunate than most idols in the country due to the fact that I was an ex member of μ's. My former school idol group was very well-known back then, because of how fast our popularity skyrocketed, and that a newbie like us could beat a veteran like A-RISE.

μ's had influence.

Not that the fact made it way easier, it just lessened the thorns on my side. Being an ex of something tend to stuck with you, and it was hard to let the image go. This could cause an idol to be chained to the past image and would get dragged behind, unable to move on to create a new image.

But I was lucky.

The agency that took me in had my current manager to care for me. My manager was the luckiest thing I could get. Her name was Uomi Yuna, and she was a strategist, she thought of everything methodically and thoroughly, a perfectionist the way I see it.

Not to mention that she had the craziest connections.

I realized that I had just the perfect ingredients for my success, so of course, I took advantage of it and drove myself toward the spotlight in lightning speed. I just couldn't waste the chance, I had everything I need to reach my dream, all I had to do was to be passionate, and never stop honing my incredible skills.

Despite the fact that I had all the advantages, it still took me years to be where I was now. There were just too many idols in the industry, and it was hard to get noticed among the crowd, I had to do a lotta this and that in order for people to notice me.

A grin crept up on my face.

And I finally stood where not every Idol could, last night. Next I aimed to perform at Tokyo Dome, but that still sounded like a faraway dream for me at the moment, I still need to work harder until everyone knew me like they knew AKB48.

On the other hand, Eli was much, much luckier than me. But I guess it was due to the fact that her rival wasn't as much as mine, a model didn't need much luck, influence, and connection. All you needed was what you had to offer, what you could...'sell', I suppose, as crude as that sounds.

Eli was like a fresh mined diamond, you just need to clean it, shape it, and voila, you have the most shining, elegant, and beautiful thing in the world. Eli was born to be a model, she was the diamond princess, like that one BiBi's song.

Though I wonder, since Eli was also very talented in dancing, and loved it to bits, did she left that one particular skill behind now that she was a model? I certainly hadn't heard anything about dancing from Eli, I might just ask that later.

"Nico,"

Ah, speak of the devil.

I pushed myself off the wall, "Finally done, Eli?"

"Sorry it took a while, I had to remove the heavy makeup and everything, let's just go yeah? You look famished."

I gave a lopsided smile, "Ooh, yeah, I'm so hungry like a cutie panther." I said as I made a clawing gesture to the blonde.

Eli widen her eyes a little before giggling softly, "Oh my, did you just make a BiBi joke? That is so old, Nico."

I huffed, "I was kinda feeling nostalgic just now so...it just popped up, okay? Now c'mon already."

She laughed, "Alright, alright, let's go."

* * *

Eli put her cup of tea down gently, "So, I wanted to apologize that I haven't been able to contact you in a while, I had a modeling work in Russia for a month, and something...happened, there." She glanced away and sighed.

I sipped at the strawberry milkshake, staring at her silently, expecting her to continue her story. She fell silent for a while, staring into who knows where, before glancing back at me. I blinked when I saw her cheeks flared up.

She glanced around before leaning herself closer to me, "So, you know how Nozomi and I..."

I gulped down the liquid in my mouth, "Together like an old married couple? Yeah." I said curtly.

I knew about the fact that Eli and Nozomi were dating since a long time ago, I had my suspicion when we were still in μ's. They both were always together and always had _parfaits_ together, I still didn't know if parfait was their code to have a hot steamy date or not, but I'd rather not know the details.

Around the graduation time, both Eli and Nozomi finally came clear to me about the fact that they had been dating, and was about to live together. I just shrugged and said 'I knew it' to them, already realized that that was the case.

"So, uhh, well...when I went to Russia, Nozomi came with me, you see. We..." Her voice cracking up, realizing that, she cleared her throat, "She...wanted to meet my parents, and wanted to introduce herself to them, formally."

I almost spat my milkshake all over her, I swallowed it quickly and put the glass down, "She _what_!? As your lover? Seriously?"

"Y-Yes, and as you probably know, Russia is a pretty homophobic country, and my parents were pretty much Russian in that regard."

My eyes widen, my hand reached her arm and touched it gently, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry to hear that..."

She shook her head, "It's alright, we proved them that we weren't as bad as they thought. They still don't exactly approve Nozomi, but at least they don't hate her." She sighed and leaned back on her chair. "And I finally told Alisa too, she said she already suspected it and is fine with it since she likes Nozomi a lot, which I already expected. Unexpectedly, my grandmother actually approved Nozomi, and she's the true Russian, I'm still confused."

I sighed in relief, happy to know that her situation wasn't as bad as I had thought at first, then I also leaned back on my chair, "Well, now that your family knows, what about Nozomi's?"

"Oh, right, I haven't told you about it. They knew since years ago, Nozomi told them about me a year after we moved in together. I've only ever met them like four times, since they keep moving away and all. But they're a sweet parents, they actually treat me like their own daughter."

I nodded in understanding, "I see, I see, well that's good then. I'd rather not want to see your career goes boom just because of some emotional problem, you've gone so far, Eli."

She gave me an amused stare, "Your focus is still entirely in the showbiz world I see. You're still the ambitious Nico that I know."

I crossed my arms and huffed, "Of course! Who do you think you're talking to?"

Her lips tugged upward, "Oh, have you heard the updates about Honoka and the others?" She asked, I frowned slightly for a second before I shook my head guiltily as an answer, and began to eat the food that finally arrived. I tried to eat as elegant as I could, despite how hungry I was.

I watched her eyes soften, "Ah, I guess you _were_ especially busy these last couple of years. Well you see, Honoka officially wanted to take over her family's business, Umi have joined the law enforcement, and Kotori finally began her own fashion house. In fact, the modeling job I took just now was for Kotori's design."

I stopped eating immediately, starring at Eli in disbelief. I couldn't believe that I've only lost contact for a while, and those three have gone that far. Honoka and Kotori, sure, I've seen it coming, but I still couldn't get my mind around the timid Umi actually working in the law enforcement. What drove her to that side of the world? Was it the fact that her family own a dojo, and martial arts were just in her flesh and blood?

"And as for Rin and the others, Rin is aiming to become a school gym teacher, Hanayo is still planning to open an Idol themed yakiniku restaurant together with Nozomi while working part-time at my agency together with her, and Maki...huh, I actually don't know much, she's hard to contact. The last thing Nozomi heard was that her parents were adamant about her taking over her family's hospital, and that's why she's like, gone, probably focusing on that."

Hearing the last bit about a certain red haired rich girl caused my eyebrows to knitted together, "Seriously? I thought Maki-chan really wanted to become a composer. The last thing she told me, which was years ago, was that she seriously wanted to aim for that dream, instead of following what her parents wanted."

"Ah, I heard that too. Nozomi told me that after Maki and the others graduated, she wanted to enter a music university, but her parents..."

I scrunched up my nose, "That parents of hers still force her to be what they wanted, it seems that they still dislike the fact that Maki-chan was ever involved in something outside of the medical field. Remember that time when Maki-chan almost quit μ's when her parents finally found out about her school idol activities?"

"Yes, I do, it was pretty...bad."

"Yeah, and despite what Maki-chan really wanted, they still don't listen, that's awful. Her piano and composing skill will just go to waste." I said with venom in my voice, I just really hate the kind of parents that won't allow their kids to be what they wanted to be. I mean, us kids also only live once, give us a break!

We all live to smile, and we live to make others smile. At least that was what my dad taught me when I was just a cute little kid.

This time, Eli began to frown as well, "Nozomi and I are worried about that as well, we wanted to help her but she's just...gone, we couldn't contact her as of late."

I clicked my tongue, continuing to eat my food furiously now, not caring about my image anymore. Maki-chan's parents just grinds my gears, I really didn't want to see a former colleague suffering just because her parents said so. Not to mention that it was also thanks to Maki-chan that I could be who I was.

If Maki-chan didn't become μ's composer back then, there wouldn't be μ's at all, and I wouldn't be able to have a taste of spotlight, a taste of being an idol. Maki-chan's incredible sense of music brought all nine of us into Love Live. Without her ingenious musicality brain, our passion wouldn't be able to reach into the hearts of the audience and brought us to victory. And without said victory, I wouldn't be able to stand at the pinnacle of idol world.

Trying to forget my annoyance toward Maki-chan's parents, this topic reminds me of a question that I had back at TMB.

"Anyways, Eli, I've been wondering something..." I finally asked.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Have you stopped dancing, like, completely? I mean, you love dancing, don't you?"

Eli gave me a startled look, "Oh, well...actually, about that," She paused a little, before glancing around as if to see if someone was around, "My agency seems to want me to venture into the idol world." She whispered carefully to me.

I raised an eyebrow, interested in this, "Oh?"

She nodded, "You're right, about me loving dancing, and yes, I still do it in my spare time, as a hobby. My agency found out about that, and considering my history, they're wondering if I could become an idol, a professional idol like you. They said that not only I have a knack in dancing, I have a good voice, too."

I nodded in agreement, "Can't deny that. I remember that many people in the online forum praised your voice, back in our μ's days."

Her cheeks flushed, "Is-Is that so..."

I put my utensils down, "You know what, how about we kidnap Maki-chan from her miserable parents, and just rebuild our unit; BiBi? Niconii would certainly be able to bring you all to prosperity." I said with my trademark pose and a giggle.

Eli laughed at that, "That sounds promising, Nico." Then I laughed along with her. Even though I made it sound like just a joke, I did think it was a pretty good idea. I just really want to get Maki-chan out of her cage for some reason.

Maki-chan deserved better.

A loud ringtone suddenly pierced my ears, it was so loud that it startled both Eli and I. We both apologized to each other in reflex and grabbed our bags to fish for the source of the ringing. But then I stopped when I realized that it wasn't my ringtone.

Perhaps it was Eli's? The ringtone was one of BiBi's song after all.

I looked up from my bag to Eli, who was staring questioningly at me, this caused me to look back at her in confusion. After a couple of seconds, we both finally realized that it wasn't from any of our phones.

She blinked, "Huh?"

I blinked in bewilderment as well, "Eh?"

We both immediately looked around to our surroundings, curious as to where was that ringtone coming from. I mean, it wasn't just any ringtone, it was BiBi's first song; Diamond Princess no Yuutsu.

Eli stared at me, before gesturing that wherever the noise that still hadn't stop for some reason was probably coming from behind me. Feeling very, very curious, I stood up from my seat and glanced over the short wall of decoration that separates each seats to find who was it that actually have BiBi's first song as their ringtone.

It seemed that Eli was right, it came from behind me, I could see a smartphone lying on top of the table behind me, still ringing and vibrating. I was confused as to why whoever this guy was didn't pick it up. Curious, I glanced to the guy who was...I mean girl, who was laying her head down on top of her crossed arms.

 _Wait, this girl—_

This girl, who was sleeping on the table, had a familiar red hair that fell messily around her shoulders, and she was wearing a dark gray hoodie jacket that looked crumpled from her awkward sleeping position.

 _This figure, I could never forget this figure._

"Ma-Maki-chan...?" I muttered to myself in disbelief.

But it seemed that Eli heard it, "What? Maki?" Eli stood up from her seat and went toward the table behind me, I followed her to get a better look at the sleeping girl.

We both watched the girl carefully; we couldn't see her face, but this sleeping figure right here was no doubt our former colleague that we were just talking about. I glanced over to her phone that laid next to a small black bag only to realize that it finally stop ringing, and widen my eyes when I could see the background of said phone.

It was a photo of μ's, and it was not an official photo that we released back then, it was a candid photo.

"This is really Maki-chan...!" I whispered to Eli as I pointed to the phone on the table. Eli glanced at it for a sec and then stared back at the sleeping girl in utter shock. Then we stared at each other and nodded, before sitting down. I sat next to the girl and Eli sat in front of her.

I felt bad but, we were still curious so I had to wake her up, "He-Hey, Maki-chan." I said hesitantly as I tapped her shoulder, still feeling unsure. But this girl didn't budge even a little, so I resorted to shaking her body lightly.

I heard a low groan of protest, she shook my hand away and buried her face deeper in her arms. I could feel annoyance began to bubble up within me, I was so close to whack this girl in the head. I never knew Maki-chan slept like a log.

Frowning, I shook her body hard this time and called a bit loud in her ear, "Maki-chan!"

She sat up straight abruptly, obviously startled, "Ueeh!?" She let out a surprised noise, the moment I heard it, I finally knew for sure that this was Maki-chan.

The red haired girl, leaned her back on her chair and clutched her own chest, I couldn't help but think that her startled face look funny. She rubbed her eyes with her other hand and glanced around, then stared back and forth to me and Eli.

"Heya, sleeping princess, we didn't expect to see you sleeping here." I said as I studied her appearances, I raised an eyebrow when I realized how miserable Maki-chan looked right now. Her clothes were wrinkled beyond help and her hair was a mess, and she looked like a zombie, what with that huge bag under her eyes, the thin body, and pale complexion.

"Maki! It has been a long time, I didn't think we finally meet again like this though." Eli said, looking excited to finally see our former groupmate.

"Wh-Wha—Why the heck...?" She stammered uselessly.

I pointed my thumb to our original seat, "We were having lunch, then heard a certain familiar ringtone, so we were curious as to where it came from and then bam! We see you sleeping here like this is a five star hotel or something."

"U-Uhh..."

I frowned, "You look like a hot mess right now Maki-chan. Have you been sleeping, and eating properly at all? What are you doing sleeping in a place like this, anyways?"

Maki-chan stared silently at me, before glancing away, she looked nervous for some reason. I cocked my head a little bit, confused by her reaction. I glanced to Eli and gave her a questioning look, and she sent me that same look, we both wonder what was up with our former groupmate, and I could tell that Eli was worried about Maki-chan, me too.

I looked back at Maki-chan, just in time to caught her glancing back at me. Maki-chan jolted and began to fidget a little, she still didn't say anything. I looked back at Eli and we both share a knowing look.

Something happened to Maki-chan.

Without thinking twice, I began to say, "That's it, you're coming with me, Maki-chan. I don't take no as an answer."

"Wh-Wha—"

I pointed accusingly at her, "You, are coming to my place, at least you need a proper place to sleep. You seriously look like you're going to pass out right now."

Eli tapped my shoulder, softly this time, "I'll pay for ours and hers, wait for me outside."

I gave Eli a thumbs up and a small thanks, before she went off to pay for the bill. Immediately, I grabbed Maki-chan's wrist and pulled a little, just in case she ran away, she did look like she was about to bolt, and I still had no idea why.

I stood up as my hand tugged at her, beckoning her to stand along with me, but she didn't move an inch, she just kept looking away. Frowning at this, I bent down and pushed my face really close to hers, causing her to yelp and taken aback.

"Listen, Maki-chan, I dunno what's going on with you, but just one glance is enough to tell me that something is definitely wrong with you." I whispered lowly, but audible enough for Maki-chan to hear.

My eyebrows loosened up and my eyes softened, "I know I'm meddling, but I just don't want to leave an old partner looking miserable like this." I whispered again, before sighing, "As your senpai, I have every right to care." I tugged at her again, this time silently begging her to listen to me, instead of forcing her to.

A switch had been flipped within me, the moment I saw what state Maki-chan was in, she reminded me of my younger siblings. Her appearances just scream for help, and since I was so used to taking care of my little ones for years, ever since dad...

I just had to take care of her. Maternal instinct, perhaps?

The corners of my lips tugged upward when I saw Maki-chan finally stood up as she grabbed her phone, put it into her pocket, and then grabbed her small bag and slung it over her shoulder.

She was frowning but her cheeks were a bit red and she was twirling the ends of her hair, a habit I hadn't seen in years, since we hadn't been able to get together in a long time, thanks to my profession.

"There we go, you should listen to me because I'm the number 1 idol here!" I smirked as I made my trademark pose with my free hand. Then I giggled as I grabbed her wrist tighter, before pulling her towards the entrance of the cafe.

"What does that have to do with anything..." She huffed, "Don't be so cocky just because you've finally performed at Saitama Super Arena."

I froze completely in my track, I turned my head and stared at Maki-chan who was pulling her hoodie over her head with wide eyes, I was surprised to hear what she just said.

"Maki-chan you...you keep up with my updates?"

She gave me a startled look, "Wha—uhh, it's not like I keep a track of you or anything! You're just all over the news and the net! Why would I keep a track of someone like you?"

I frowned and pinched her wrist that I held in my hand, "Hey, that's rude!"

She yelped in agony, "Ow! Hey! Stop that!" She began to struggle to get her hand free, but I kept her locked and actually pinched her harder so that this stupid girl wouldn't go anywhere.

"Well, miss doctor, I'll stop if only you could be nice to cute little Niconii!" I glared at her.

Then, she suddenly stopped struggling, heck, she stopped moving at all as if she was frozen in time. This made me raised an eyebrow and stopped pinching her, before looking up to her face.

Her expression made me feel a deep regret.

Maki-chan had her eyes stared sharply into nothing. Her jaw visibly tightening, and her eyebrows were knitted together very tightly. There was a mix of negative emotion visible across her face, most notably was anger, and this was why I felt a deep a regret.

Was it something I said that made this utterly miserable expression?

What the hell happened to this girl that she showed such ominous expression when she was triggered?

"Ma...Maki-chan?"

What got her like this?

Tell me Maki-chan.

"Nico, Maki, I've paid the bill." I heard the voice of my blonde best friend as she stood next to us.

I glanced at her as I let go of Maki-chan's wrist, "O-Oh, Eli...I'll pay for everything."

Eli waved dismissively, "Don't worry about it, Nico." Then she glanced at the silent red haired girl who was looking at everywhere but us. This action made Eli raised an eyebrow, and she gave me a questioning look, I only shook my head as an answer.

I sighed then looked back at the red haired girl, "Maki-chan, I will say it again, you're coming with me, understand?" I said, softly this time, still feeling guilty that I might've made her mad somehow.

Maki-chan sighed as she brought her hood lower to cover her face more, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

I sighed in relief, she didn't sound mad, although there was a sense of gloom in her voice. I was still worried though because she was acting weird, like she was trying to hide herself from who knows what, since she kept looking around cautiously.

"I'm afraid I'm going to back Nico up this time, Maki..." Eli paused a little bit to stare at Maki-chan up and down, "and I believe there are a lot of things we should talk about."

Maki-chan glanced at us for a sec, before looking away again, and huffed, loudly.

* * *

"C'mon in! Welcome to the number 1 idol's crib!" I exclaimed as I posed in front of Maki-chan and Eli.

"Ooh, it's been awhile since the last time I'm here, please excuse me." The blonde said as she took off her shoes and wore the indoor slippers.

Maki-chan pulled down her hood, shaking her red hair free before scrunching up her nose, she was making an unamused face, "It's dirty."

"Well I'm sorry, princess, I've been too busy to do a thorough clean!" I glared at her, "At least I cleaned the mess a little this afternoon!"

"So that means it was dirtier before." She made disgusted face.

I could almost feel a vein popped, "Hey!"

I heard a sigh from Eli, "Well, I see that you two haven't changed at all..."

I crossed my arms, "Hmph! Just, come on in already!" I beckoned them to the living room and I sat down on a small couch next to a big one, which the two sat on.

I stared at my two friends, "Want anything to drink? I've got tea and coffee."

Eli nodded, "Well, I would like-" then there was a loud ringing sound which startled all of us, then Eli looked over her bag, "Hold that thought, that ringtone is certainly from my phone this time."

No duh it was Eli's, the ringtone was her duet song with Nozomi; Glass no Hanazono. I scoffed at the ringtone that she especially set for Nozomi's call, these two I swear...

She gave Maki-chan and I an apologetic look before picking up her phone, "Nozomi? What's—wait hold on calm down."

Both Maki-chan and I raised an eyebrow at the same time.

Well, we couldn't hear Nozomi clearly, but we could hear bits of her voice. She sounded furious or panicking or something.

 _Wait, oh no, don't say..._

Eli made a confused look, "Home, now? What's going—she's there?"

"I'm at Nico's—uhh home like, _now_ , now? Listen Nozomi, we—okay, okay, I'm going home, now, I'll grab a cab." Then Eli pulled her phone away from her and stared at it, dumbfounded.

I stared at Eli, wondering what happened back in her home. I really wanted to ask but I didn't want Eli to have a breakdown. I mean, what if it was about their relationship or something? Maki-chan certainly didn't know about them, since those two hadn't come out openly to μ's girls so I better not bring anything up.

"What's up, Eli?" Maki-chan asked with a concerned look, I stared at her in surprise, oh Maki-chan, please don't make this awkward.

I braced myself in case something will come crashing at me.

"Oh, uhh...I don't know, Nozomi just suddenly ask me to go home, she didn't tell me why though, but she sounds like she's panicking about something."

Oh that's it? Phew, that means it was okay to ask. I remember that one time when something like this happened. We were hanging out, Nozomi called her, and Eli looked dumbfounded. Then when I asked her what was wrong, Eli just cried right then and there, she hugged me real tight and didn't let go for an hour.

And we were in public at that time, it was awkward!

It turned out that those two were fighting, and that was why Eli cried when I asked her what was wrong. Since then, I was really careful when I was around Eli, especially when it looked like Eli got a call from a furious Nozomi. I tend to bolt the moment I realized Nozomi and Eli are fighting. Well, unless I was at home, and not in the middle of a crowd.

Whenever those two were fighting, Eli would come bawling to me, and I'm fine with that as long as she didn't do it in public, otherwise my fans will question why am I hanging out with a crying Eli, and I certainly couldn't say the truth.

Eli might look mature and all, but she was like a sad baby fox whenever she was fighting with Nozomi. And more often the fight started because she was an insensitive dork, it pissed me off sometimes seeing how dumb the clever and cute Elichika could be.

"So...anyways," I snapped out of my trance and stared at Eli, who was standing up from my couch, "thanks for the drink offer, Nico, but I need to go back right now."

I shook my head, "It's okay Eli, just tell me what's up later."

"Of course, oh and sorry, I said we're going to hangout all day today but..." She bowed her head down slightly.

"Ohh, it's fine, it's fine! We'll hangout again later, just go back home, you wouldn't want Nozomi to wait, right?" I mused with a knowing wink.

"...Right, oh, and it's nice to see you again, Maki, we'll hangout for real later, okay? With Nozomi too, she's especially worried about you, you know, she hasn't heard of you in a long while." She said as she pat Maki-chan's shoulder.

Maki-chan looked away, looking troubled, "Uu...y-yeah, sure."

"Well, see you guys later." Eli waved at us, then Eli stared at me knowingly as she nodded her head to Maki-chan.

Yeah, I'll take care of her, Eli.

I heard shuffling here and there, before a sound of a door opening and closing, indicating that Eli have stepped out.

And now there's this awkward silence between Maki-chan and I.

I stared at Maki-chan who was looking down and twirling the ends of her hair with her finger. At this, I sighed and went over to her, sitting next to her, causing her to yelp and jumped a little on the couch.

"Maaaaki-chan!" I called her, as sweet as I could to break the ice.

"W-What?" She said curtly, looking away from me and continued twirling her hair.

"So, what's up with you?" I dropped my sweet tone as I asked her, it was time to get serious, because I could tell that whatever happened to Maki-chan was something I shouldn't take so lightly.

"What's with me? Nothing."

I scrunched up my nose, feeling annoyed. "Really now, you suddenly went up and disappear on us, only to find you were sleeping in a cafe, your clothes all messed up, you also looked like the walking dead and you're going to say nothing is up? You sure suck at lying, Maki-chan."

She tightened her jaw, "Hey, I wasn't the one disappearing on their ex-groupmates for years so that they could rise up in fame—" She stopped herself by biting her lower lip.

I stopped dead, I could feel a pang in my heart at her words. Her words just struck me like thousands of knives, "What...what did you just say? Did you just seriously said what I think you said...?" My heart thudded hard within me, and it was painful.

Maki-chan stared at me, she was frowning and a hurt yet apologetic look was apparent in her eyes. She opened her mouth, but closed it again and just stared at me in silence.

"Do you think I wanted to disappear like that, Maki-chan? I didn't want to, but I had to! Don't you know how hard it is to survive in idol industry? Unlike our school idol days, being a professional idol is not easy, and one single mistake will ruin the entire career completely!" I raised my voice, anger began to bubble up within me, and I lashed it out to the girl who triggered this reaction.

The red haired girl lost that hurtful look, and widen her eyes in utter shock instead, "Ni-Nico-chan..."

"Do you even know what I had to go through to be able to reach where I am? Do you even know how many perverted old men I had to run away from so that I wouldn't get dirtied by their grubby hands!?"

I could no longer stop myself, what was I doing, telling her my past that I promised to myself that I will keep it with me until the day I die?

Despite having the perfect ingredients to become a real idol, one problem was still in the way; the people and their politics. There are a lot of old men only willing to hire me for a gig if I gave them a 'good time'.

Which I refused to do, of course. And that kind of moment was where my manager shone brightly, Yuna-san saved me from those guys a lot and sometimes still able to convince them to let me have the gig without any 'good time'.

Most of the time those guys that I rejected just screw me over though, and not in the dirty way, but still in a bad way. That was why it took me so long to be where I stood, and it cost me my time with everyone. Because those perverted greedy lonely men kept screwing me over just because they have more connections and influence than my agency did.

"I-I'm sorry...I didn't know." Came a soft voice while I was in my trance.

What?

Oh, did I just say what I thought out loud?

Well, the cat's out of the bag.

I gritted my teeth, "So don't you dare say that I disappeared on you guys just because I wanted to rise up in fame. I did want to rise up in fame, but I didn't want all those bad times that cost me our hangout time, I wanted to be with you guys too, okay?" My voice was cracking up, and my eyes began to blur.

"Nico-chan..." She whispered softly, before pulling out something from her bag and shove it to my face, then she began to rub what appeared to be her handkerchief across my eyes.

"Ow! Hey, be gentle will ya!?"

"J-Just shut up and let me do it!"

"But be gentle—hey! You're poking my eyes, idiot!" I pulled away from her awful hands and rubbed my eyes to soothe the pain that the rough friction caused.

I scoffed, "You made me cry and now you're trying to make me go blind, just how much more rude can you be to the great Niconii?"

"…rry." She mumbled lowly.

"What was that?"

She looked away guiltily, "I said I'm sorry..."

I rubbed my face a little more as we fell into silence once again. My eyes still stung a little bit but I've stopped rubbing it and instead stared at the rude red haired girl. After a couple more seconds in silence, I realized that I might've over reacted a bit just because she pulled my trigger.

And I realized that this wasn't the time to mope about the past, someone needed more help here.

My hand grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie and tugged it shyly, "...Sorry, Maki-chan, I didn't mean to blow up on you."

Maki-chan turned her head to me, she looked like she was thinking for a sec before shaking her head, "No, it's okay. I started it."

It was a little bit strange to see Maki-chan so...considerate, at least towards me, but I like it, was it bad that I like it when I made her feel guilty about me?

Despite what I thought, I still think that this was not the appropriate time to be moping, I should be smiling for Maki-chan who look like a wreck, not blowing up on her! I really need to get my priorities straight.

"Nico is fine, see?" I posed right in front of her face, grinning from ear to ear, then pinched her cheek, "But what about Maki-chan?" I said, soften up my voice a tad.

She pulled her face away from me, cheeks red, "W-What about me?"

"C'mon Maki-chan, don't make me repeat myself," I sighed, "I do feel worried about you, you know? Especially when I heard that your parents..."

Ah, her face tightened, maybe I hit the spot? So it had something to do with her insufferable parents?

She kept silent and looked away, it seemed like she really didn't want to talk about this. Well, if this was really about her parents, I might blow up again.

So for now,

"You know what Maki-chan, how about you rest up for now? You look like you're gonna pass out on my couch."

She was startled, "Ueeh?"

I hopped off from my couch and grabbed her arm, "I'll lend you my awesome bed, now c'mon!"

She looked like she wanted to struggle free and protest, but instead she gave me a flustered look and rubbed her sleepy eyes. Guess she was so tired that she couldn't retort back, this girl just crave for some sleep.

I pulled her up and dragged her towards my bedroom which I already cleaned because it was the focus of my quick cleaning this afternoon. So I didn't have to worry about Maki-chan making another stupid comment.

I took off her bag from her shoulder before I laid her down on my bed and cover her with my blanket. She wriggled around awkwardly underneath my puffy blanket, looking very comfy and even more sleepy.

And cute.

Honestly, I feel like I was taking care of my little ones, putting them to bed, pamper them a lot with a lot of pat on their head so it would help them sleep better.

And without me realizing it, I did exactly just that.

I pulled back my hand immediately, panicking, "Oh, sorry, it's a habit when I tucked my siblings to bed."

There was a small, soft groan, "Mm...no, keep going." She said with sleepy voice, she looked like she was half-asleep already.

"Eh...you're really spoiled, Maki-chan." A smile crept up on my lips, I shook my head as I giggled and put my hand back to her head, ruffling her red locks. Maki-chan sighed in contentment.

Maki-chan hadn't change. She looked mature, more mature than me, who was 2 years older than her, but she still act like a spoiled baby. All of my mature looking friends were all babies, like Eli and Umi, especially Eli.

Okay, except Yuna-san. My manager was mature inside-out, and we only have 3 years age gap.

"Thank you, Nico-chan." Came Maki-chan's sleepy voice, she gave me an honest grateful look before closing her eyes and leaned in to my touch.

My heart thumped really hard.

Wha—not fair, how come this spoiled rude princess could be this cute!? It was like I saw a small, defenseless kitten or something, this wasn't fair at all!

I had to stop ruffling her hair for a sec and clutched my chest, just above my thumping heart. This girl really caught me out off guard.

Hearing a small mumble of protest, I continued my ministrations to her soft mop of a head. I kept ruffling her hair gently until I could hear her breath evened.

Seriously, she was such a baby.

I should savor this moment, since Maki-chan rarely show this baby side of hers. She did a really good job acting mature, and she really wanted people to treat her like one, so she never really let this side of her out to anyone.

Anyone except μ's girls, of course, although very rarely, since her pride was still too thick to let this side of hers flow out freely.

So yes, I really do want to savor this moment, because this moment was the only thing that can rival Niconii's cuteness!

* * *

I heard my doorbell rang.

"Oh?" I grabbed my cleaning tools, and put it in a corner somewhere before walking towards the front door. Dusting off my clothes with my hands all the way in case there was any excess dust.

After making sure that I look decent, I grabbed the doorknob and turned it slightly, before opening the door wide enough so that I was able to see who came by.

My eyebrows raised up when I could see who it was, it was a woman with a long dark brown hair done in a high ponytail, and brown eyes.

"Ah, Yuna-san." My manager, Yuna-san, stood there with her trademark calm face. She bowed her head a little to me before she lifted up a couple of plastic bags on her hands to my line of sight.

"I reckon that you are tired enough that you won't bother to cook yourself some dinner?"

I frowned, "Hey, you're underestimating me way too much! I'm not that weak!" I huffed and crossed my arms on my chest.

"Of course, Nico. So you don't want these?" She made a witty comment as she shook the plastic bags she held.

"U-Urgh….j-just come in!" I stepped aside and beckoned her to come in. My manager just walked in, then she put the bags on the floor to bent down and took off her shoes. Right when she bent down and reached for her shoelace, she stopped moving and her eyes were focusing on something else.

I raised an eyebrow in question when I saw that my manager was wearing that look that she always have whenever she was thinking or wondering about something. Curious, I glanced to whatever she was looking at, to find that she was looking at a pair of shoes, Maki-chan's shoes.

"Oh, that's Maki-chan's." I said to her before she even ask anything.

She continued taking off her shoes and wore the indoor slippers, "…Maki? Do I know them?" She asked as she gave me a wary look.

And there goes her interrogation switch, my manager has a knack to investigate my social life in full detail. It wasn't weird for me, because as my manager, she needed to make sure I hung out with the correct people at the correct time, otherwise there might be a chance that it would hurt my reputation. Idol industry was just that sensitive.

It was annoying, but I had to admit that it was necessary.

I took one of the bags so she there will be less burden for her, "You should've known her. She's my former groupmate, Nishikino Maki."

She hummed in understanding, "Ah, I see." Her posture went back from wary to relax, this meant that she realized that she didn't have anything to worry about.

I sighed in relief, I was a little bit afraid that she would have a problem with me hanging out with Maki-chan. Because honestly, just for this one time, I didn't want to let idol business in my way. It has been a long time since I saw Maki-chan, and I just need to take care of her no matter what happened, Maki-chan just looked way too miserable to be left alone.

Not to mention she went out of everyone's contact for a while, so I couldn't let her slip away this time.

I put the bag in my hand on top of my kitchen counter. Feeling curious as to what was inside, I took a peek, to find that it was filled with a bunch of ingredients.

"Nico, I don't see your friend anywhere…" I heard my manager spoke as she also put the bag on the counter and started taking out some ingredients from it.

"She's sleeping in my bedroom at the moment."

Yuna-san shot me a confused look, "Huh? Why?"

I scratched my chin, "Uhh….it's a long story. Let's just say that I found that girl when she was in dire need of sleep."

She knitted her eyebrows together, "…You better elaborate on it later."

I shrugged, then I just helped her taking out the ingredients onto the counter. After we took out everything, my manager grabbed the empty plastic bags and threw them in a bin.

"Well, should I make three helpings for dinner then?" She asked after sighing at me.

"Make it four, I bet that girl is also in dire need of food." I sighed exasperatedly as I remember how thin Maki-chan was, "I'll help with the cooking, what are we making?"

She shook her head as she frowned, "No, you get some rest, I know you've been spending your time cleaning your apartment. So go hit the sack, I'll be done in an hour or so."

My mouth opened slightly to retort back, but I closed it right away when I saw my manager gave me a really sharp look that said that she didn't take no as an answer. So I just grumbled, feeling offended that she treat me as if I was weak, before stomping off towards my bedroom and entered it.

I was about to just jump onto my bed, but I stopped when I remember that Maki-chan was sleeping there at the moment. This made me think that maybe I should just sleep in the living room, but the thought made me aware of my aching body.

No, sleeping on a couch wouldn't be good for me, in my current state I'd just kill my precious body.

Staring at the figure sleeping peacefully on my bed, I came to a realization that my bed was big enough for two—heck, even three people could sleep there if they squished together. So that means I could just sleep next to the sleeping princess no problem.

I went over to my alarm clock to set it so that it would rang in an hour and half. I thought that maybe by then Yuna-san would be done with preparing for our dinner.

I took off my ribbons and put it on the bedside table before I went over to the opposite side of where Maki-chan slept, and really slowly and carefully laid down on the mattress.

Looking to my side to made sure that I didn't disturb the rude princess, I then grabbed the blanket and cover myself with it, sighing in contentment when I felt really comfortable, and it made me feel really sleepy.

I might be annoyed that my manager treat me as if I was weak, but I begrudgingly admit that I did feel very tired and also sleep-deprived. My comfortable bed was quickly sucking all of my consciousness away from me, making my eyes felt heavy.

With a weak annoyed huff, I decided to let myself slipped away to the dream world. No longer caring when I could feel a slight movement from my side and I could feel something landed on my upper body.

* * *

 _Ring ring_ , came the sound of my alarm clock.

Being a light sleeper I am, I opened my eyes with a groan of protest, cursing inwardly at the stupid clock. My nap time just wasn't enough, and I wished I could sleep some more, but I knew that I had to be awake for dinner.

I was about to get up quickly, but I couldn't, since something was holding me down. Wondering why I couldn't get up, I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision. It took me a couple of seconds to finally realize what was in front of me.

A dark gray fabric filled my entire vision.

Maki-chan's hoodie.

Blinking, I looked up, only to hit my face on Maki-chan's jaw. Eyes widening in shock, I turn my head around to find that the rude girl had her arms tight around me, hugging me like I was her personal fluffy teddy bear.

I screamed internally, because I didn't intend to alarm Yuna-san who were outside, and tried to struggle free by pulling myself away from the red haired girl. But all I got was a groan and she held me tighter. Maki-chan pulled me closer to her body, so close that I ended up burying my face on her chest.

"Don't go…." She mumbled very softly, half-asleep.

 _I don't remember Maki-chan sleeps like this!_

 _Oh who am I kidding, I rarely see how she sleeps._

"Mmgghh….." I grumbled to her chest, trying to wriggle my way out of her sleep-hug, to no avail.

 _This_ _adult-_ _looking baby I swear…_

I gave up, my currently weak, aching body was no match to the strong baby Maki-chan. So I just laid back down, groaning. I need to think of a way to get out of this mess.

I breathed in, before sighing deeply. But right then, I realized something.

A smell.

And not a good one.

"Urk!?" I let out a weird strangled noise.

Maki-chan's body smells, and not the good kind, she actually smelled like sweat and she smelled like she hadn't taken a bath for days. So not only she looked miserable, she smelled terrible too!?

 _Is this seriously the Maki-chan I know all these years? The rich princess that I met at my third year in high school?_

Ignoring all kinds of agony that was happening all over my body, I pushed Maki-chan away with everything I had. Surprisingly, I pushed her away so hard that it sent her off the bed and onto the cold, hard floor.

"Ueeh!?" I heard her yelp, before there was a loud thump, "Ow!" it sounded like she really fell hard, I grimaced at it a little.

I pulled the comfortable blanket off of me and hopped off my bed, turning off my alarm clock before I stood above Maki-chan, who was holding her head and was groaning in pain.

She slowly looked up at me, eyes glossed over in agony, "W-What the heck!?"

"W-What? It's not my fault you fell!" I actually felt a little guilty, but I definitely wouldn't admit that to her.

"Didn't you just pushed me?!"

I look away, "I-It because you reek! It was a reflex!"

She fell silent, then she looked down to herself before her cheeks flared up, "O-Oh, I haven't been able to—" She paused, then snapped her head up to me, "Wait, you just admitted that you pushed me!"

I was taken aback, "U-Ugh…like I said, it was a reflex! Plus you were hugging me like a pillow so I just panicked!" I blabber whatever I had in mind.

She widen her eyes, "…Eh?"

We both fell into silent. I kept staring at her face, to find her cheeks were as red as a tomato. Maki-chan looked flustered, and it made me realize that I just said something about that awkward sleep-hug to her, this caused my cheeks to flared up as well.

I cleared my throat, "A-Anyway…" I grabbed Maki-chan by the hoodie, pulled her, beckoning her to stand up, and she actually followed my gesture, "Before we eat some dinner, I want you to take a bath first, at least a shower."

"Uu….but I didn't bring any clothes."

My eyes wandered, looking at her from head to toe, a thought immediately came to mind, "Oh don't worry, I have an idea." I said, before dragging her towards my wardrobe.

I let go of her, opened my wardrobe, and took out my spare towel before I handed it to her. Then I went back to my wardrobe and rummaging through my underwear, I gave her a pair of panties that I never wear because it was too big on me, and also gave her a stretchy sports bra that I wear on my physical training day.

She stared at the last two things I just gave, and her cheeks were turning red again.

I sighed, "Don't worry, I never wear that panties, it's too big on me." Maki-chan sighed in relief, "Oh, but I wear that bra from time to time, so you better give it back to me later." And then Maki-chan froze up, looking flustered.

…Gotta admit that she looked cute when she was flustered, kinda made me want to tease her.

"And I'll just borrow the rest of the clothes that will fit you somewhere. Now just go already, you're not getting any dinner if you still smell like the dead!" I exclaimed as I pushed her body towards the door.

"Okay, okay! S-Stop pushing me already!"

I huffed before opening my bedroom door and pointed to the direction where my bathroom was, "Now shoo, and just put your dirty clothes in the hamper."

"Jeez..." She grumbled lowly as she went over towards my bathroom, and I hummed in satisfaction at that.

I turned around, to find Yuna-san was staring in bewilderment from afar.

Her eyes were filled with questions, "Uhm,"

I waved dismissively, "Long story, oh by the way I need to ask you a favor, Yuna-san." I strutted to her.

She stared at me suspiciously, "Yes…?"

"Can I borrow your clothes? Just a T-shirt and track pants is fine, for Maki-chan. Yours will fit her because you have a similar figure as her." She opened her mouth, probably about to ask a question, but I cut her off, "Long story, just lemme borrow'em."

She gave me a dissatisfied face, probably because there were a lot of things that I hadn't answered. I should probably tell her everything later so she wouldn't be anxious about it, and before she turned into my personal social life detective.

"Fine…I will go to my room to grab them." She let out an exasperated sigh, "I've just finished making the dinner, by the way." She said, before walking away, towards the front door, then left my room.

"Thank you Yuna-san!" She could probably heard me from outside of the door, since I was exclaiming real loud with a very, very sweet voice. Sorry about all of this manager-san, but Nico just really wanted to help my junior.

I was pretty lucky, because Yuna-san actually lived in the same apartment building as I was, so it wouldn't take her long to grab some clothes for Maki-chan.

It wasn't actually a coincidence that I live in the same building as my manager though. My manager set this all up, she recommended this place to me when I first started working as an idol under her care. She said that it was more convenient and more efficient. Not only this place was close to some tv stations and studios, she would be able to handle me at a close distance. Not to mention that this place was pretty big for an apartment in Tokyo, so I took her recommendation rather quickly.

That was why I hadn't got any stupid scandal after all these years, even when those old guys screwed me over with their greed and politics. Yeah, there were unlucky idols that had their scandal spread by those kinda guys.

My manager was pretty determined to get me standing on top of the pinnacle of idol world, and I appreciate that. I still felt very lucky to have her as my manager.

I hummed lowly and sat down on my couch, spacing out while I wait for my manager.

Thinking about it made me realized how lucky I was, way too lucky in fact. I remember those time when I kept failing in trying to be an idol because I was unlucky. What with the failed auditions when I was young and when everyone left from my school idol group.

But now?

Now I just have all the luck in the world. I was swimming in luck, everything just kept going exactly how I wanted it to be. It still needed hard work, of course, but back then, not even hard work could save me from failing, big time.

While Maki-chan…

I used to be jealous of her, she was everything I've ever wanted. Ingenious musical talent, pretty face, and rich. She could reach my dream to become the number one idol, piece of cake. I felt that she was born to be lucky, she was the opposite of me.

So why did it seem like she was swimming in misfortune? She had everything that I've always wanted, but she was the one that was miserable now.

She couldn't let her passion dance freely, she couldn't show her pretty face to the world, and she couldn't even use her money to further enhance her composing skill. I also had a feeling that the reason why she looked like a mess was because of her parents, and she was struggling because of it.

Maki-chan was a prisoner, she was behind bars while her dreams was dancing right in front of her eyes.

I wanted to help her, as someone who was able to express my passion freely to the world and feel happy about it, I wanted to help her taste this freedom.

I owe her a whole darn lot, and I intend to pay her back somehow.

"Nico." A hand tapped my shoulder.

"WHOA!" I jumped away from my couch and quickly turned around, to find Yuna-san holding a black T-shirt and a grey track pants.

"Uhh, didn't expect you to be surprised like that…"

I took a couple of deep breaths, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't hear you come in!"

"I thought I made some noises though….anyways, here, some clothes. I choose the ones that I rarely wear, in case she felt uncomfortable to wear stranger's clothing." She handed me the clothes, I said my gratitude to her then headed to the bathroom.

I knocked the bathroom door, "Maki-chan? I brought some clothes!"

"Thanks, just leave it there, I'll be done in a minute." Came her muffled voice.

"Alrighty, me and Yuna-san will wait for you at the dining table, just go there when you're done."

There was a slight pause, "Yuna-san…as in your manager?" She asked.

"Yep, she's the one that cooked our dinner, I'll introduce you to her later!" I said as I put the clothes down on the floor, right in front of the door.

"Okay…"

I left from there and immediately headed toward the dining table, there I saw Yuna-san was preparing our meal in the center of the table. I decided to help her by putting some plates, rice bowls, and utensils on it.

Smiling at how good the dinner looked, I hummed, I couldn't wait to feast on it, since Yuna-san was a really, really good cook. She was much better at it than me, she did say that she wanted to be a chef, but she thought that her cooking skill might be better off as just a hobby. And she also love managing things just as much, so that was why she became a manager instead.

I sat down on a chair, and I watched Yuna-san did the same, "As always, your cooking looks good, Yuna-san, how about you become Niconii's private chef?"

She waved her hand, "No thanks, being your manager is plenty."

"Jeez, how cold."

She cupped her chin, appeared to be thinking about something. She glanced at me for a moment before glancing toward the hallway where the bathroom at.

 _Ah, she's going to ask about Maki-chan._

She glanced back at me, "So, what's the deal with your friend? She looked…"

 _I knew it._

"Miserable? Yeah." I sighed exasperatedly, time for me to explain to my soon-to-be social life detective.

"So…?"

I shook my head, "I also don't know why, that is what I'm trying to figure out. Believe me or not, while I was hanging out with Eli at a cafe, talking about her, she was actually…there, sleeping behind us."

"Hmm…I see."

"I dragged her back here because she look so….tired, and she was so thin, as if she hadn't eaten properly." I frowned, remembering how Maki-chan looked.

"Hmm….Nishikino Maki, right? Isn't she like….the next in line to become the head of Nishikino hospital?"

My frown deepen hearing that, "…Yeah."

Yuna-san cupped her chin once again, thinking about who knows what, while I was just sighing, feeling pissed off somehow. Honestly, I was on the verge of kidnapping Maki-chan, if her parents were really the source of everything.

I didn't know why, but I just really wanted to help her, my guts said so.

"Oh, hello." I heard my manager said as she was looking over somewhere. I followed her line of sight to find Maki-chan, wearing Yuna-san's clothes that fit her perfectly like I expected.

Her red hair was still a little damp, and from where I sat, I could smell my soap and shampoo from her. I hummed in satisfaction, at least she didn't smell bad anymore, and she looked more neat and decent now.

I patted the empty seat next to me, beckoning her to sit there. She stared at me for a sec and then sat down next to me silently.

"Alright, Maki-chan, this is Uomi Yuna, my manager. And Yuna-san, this is Nishikino Maki, my kouhai from my old high school and my ex-groupmate from μ's."

My manager bowed her head slightly, "Nice to meet you, Nishikino-san."

Maki-chan did the same, "Nice to meet you too, Uomi-san."

"Alright, let's dig in!" I exclaimed as I clap my hands together. "Bon appétit!" Feeling my mouth watering, I quickly grabbed my utensils and began to ate. I was feeling pretty hungry, so I didn't exactly eat elegantly.

Hey, I was cleaning my whole apartment, so I was pretty burned out.

I heard my manager sigh, "Nico, slow down, it's not good for your stomach if you eat that quick."

I waved my chopsticks to her, "Oh c'mon, Niconii is just in dire need of Nico Nico fuel. No cameras around anyways so cut Niconii some slack." I said after gulping down whatever was in my mouth.

Maki-chan scoffed at me, "How about Nico Nico no."

Frowning, I slap Maki-chan's shoulder lightly, "Hey!" I shot a glare to the rude red haired girl, then I caught a glimpse of her rice bowl, and it made me widen my eyes.

"Whoa, you made snarky comments to me yet you already downed half of your rice. What, did you slurp it?" I smirked at her.

Her cheeks reddened, "S-Shut up…." Her voice went quieter, "I haven't eaten today…."

I heard that, and it made my smirk fell and a frown formed instead. It seemed that I was right to ask my manager to made four helpings instead of three. This just made me even more curious and worried. This caused my determination to help her burn even hotter within me.

 _I will not let her get away so easily, now that she's making me feel worried._

Eli was also worried anyways, because of how she went poof. Oh, not to mention when Nozomi get the wind of this, Maki-chan would never be able to flee.

Thinking about Nozomi made me wonder, what happened to her that she asked—no— _demanded_ Eli to go home right away? Something serious must have had going on, and if it was really serious, I bet Eli soon would call me to tell me about it.

I stared down at my rice bowl that was finally empty. I put my chopsticks and my bowl down before turning my head to the girl who was sitting next to me. I watched how fast she was eating her second helping, showing how hungry she was.

A frown formed once again on my eyebrows. Maki-chan tried hard to look emotionless while eating, but she failed miserably, she actually looked like she hadn't eaten in years and this worried me.

What kind of activity she had that she couldn't find the time to properly eat, and bathe? Was studying to be a doctor that bad?

Her reactions earlier on our conversations made me assume that she felt so burned out because her parents just wouldn't leave her alone and pushed her to study in the medical field.

Honestly, I wasn't sure that I could help her out of her predicament, but I wanted to try at least, or help her by comforting her so that she could get through her days better, not like this.

"…What are you looking at?"

"Huh?" I blinked at Maki-chan who was staring at me pointedly. Woops, I went off thinking again, that was not a good habit.

The red haired girl raised her eyebrow, "You're looking at me as if there was something on my face."

"I wasn't—" I paused when I caught a glimpse of one grain of rice stuck on the corner of her lips, "...Well, there _is_ something on your face." Out of instinct because something like this always happened to my siblings when they eat, I reached out my fingertips towards her and grabbed that single grain of rice. I glanced around to look for any tissues, when I find none close by, I just ate it without thinking twice.

"There, all clean." I said, in a tone that I usually use to my siblings. It took me literally 3 seconds to realize that Maki-chan was not my younger sibling, and yet I went full big sis on her.

I swear, something about Maki-chan triggered it.

Right now, I could see Maki-chan showed a flustered look, obviously embarrassed. Her face was red all the way to the tips of her ears.

I found this side of hers as cute. What was with Maki-chan and acting cute? I didn't remember Maki-chan acting like this before. Back then, she was annoying and bratty, although she had a cute side too, but the cute side seemed to be amplified now.

Weird, but it was amusing to watch.

Feeling a little bit giddy because I could get a rare reaction out of the rude girl yet again, I giggled and winked at her before standing up and began to collect my plates and bowl to the sink.

After I did so, I went over the dining table again, looking if Yuna-san and Maki-chan were done yet. I saw Yuna-san standing up and began to collect her plates, then I saw that Maki-chan was just done with her meal, so I went over to collect hers.

"I'll take care of this." I said to her before going over the sink, joining Yuna-san who has begun cleaning the dishes. I frowned a little, but I knew I couldn't stop Yuna-san, she would probably said that I must be tired and needed rest again.

As I began to help Yuna-san cleaning the dishes, I heard a couple of footsteps right behind me, probably Maki-chan.

"Anything…I can help with?" She asked hesitantly.

I shook my head, "Nah, don't worry Maki-chan, let the grown ups do their thing." I said without looking at her, still focusing on wiping clean the dishes.

"Grown up? You?" I heard her scoffed.

I stopped what I was doing and snapped my head to her, "Oi, you ungrateful baby, just sit down!"

"Wha—! I'm not a baby!"

I pointed at her accusingly with the plate in my hand, "Well, you act like one!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"I said no—"

There was a sound of someone clearing their throat, "One of you need to stop before something breaks." Yuna-san took the plate from my hand and wiped it herself, "Nico, just go rest or something, let me clean all of this in a minute. Then after that I have to go back to my room, I have to do something real quick." She said with a stern, scary mother-like tone. Not even my real mom sound as scary as her.

I pouted at her, but knowing I couldn't defy her when she used that tone, I wiped my hands dry and stepped back from the sink.

In the end, I walked together with Maki-chan towards the living room and sat down on the couch. I leaned my back on it and just sighed, feeling full but tired, my body was still sore after all. Maybe I should take another bath, I really need a lot of hot bath for my dying muscles.

Both Maki-chan and I just sat there in silence. I didn't think of breaking the silence, because I just wanted to be quiet for a bit now that my exhaustion began to catch up again. So I closed my eyes for a little, to rest it, since I was still sleep deprived.

"Hey, Nico." I heard my manager called me. Groaning lowly, I opened my eyes and turned my head lazily to her, I shot her a questioning look.

"I'll be going now, just call if you need any help. Though sorry if I don't answer immediately, I've some work to do."

I waved to her, "Got it, thanks for the food Yuna-san. Nico is now a happy super idol."

Maki-chan turned her head to Yuna-san, "Uhh….thank you."

"Don't mention it. See you Nico, and Nishikino-san." She bowed her head a little to Maki-chan, before going to the front door and leaving my room.

I laid back lazily on the couch and closed my eyes again. We both fell into silence once again, we seemed to do that a lot. I opened one eye and glanced at her, to find her also leaning back on the couch, and was staring blankly to nowhere, seemingly deep in thought.

Curious, I watched her silently, I didn't know if she realized it or not, but I would keep watching anyway. My eyes wandered around her facial features, I watched how her eyebrows and eyes twitched sometimes, I watched how she keeps twirling the ends of her hair. And I could see her lips curling into a frown for a sec, before she straightened her face.

 _What are you thinking Maki-chan?_

I just wanted to pry her open, I was too curious, but I knew it was rude. Not only that, I felt like Maki-chan was pretty fragile at the moment, and I didn't want to break her.

Then, I felt a vibration coming from my pocket.

I fished out my smartphone from my pocket, wondering if it was Eli calling me. Then, when I look at the caller's ID, I saw Eli's name on it, I knew she was going to call me soon. So I picked it up and put it on my ear.

"Hey, so what's up?" I asked, knowing that Eli was probably calling me to tell me whatever problem happened back home.

" _Nico…"_

I raised an eyebrow, because her voice was unusually quiet, "Yes?"

" _Okay, okay."_ She paused slightly to take a deep breath, _"…Listen, first things first, I want to know if Maki's still there?"_

"Huh? Yeah…?"

I heard a sigh of relief from the other line, _"Great, that's good. Now Nico, I want you to act calm, okay? Straight face."_

My frown deepen, this sounded way too suspicious, "Okay…?"

" _Okay, so Umi came by earlier, and she told Nozomi something that is…..unsettling."_

"And then?"

"… _It's about Maki, Nico."_ I heard Eli took another deep breath, _"Remember how Maki went missing and Nozomi can't contact her as of late? Well, it turned out that she really went…_ _ **missing**_ _."_

I sat up straight on the couch, "What…what do you mean?"

" _I already told you that Umi recently joined the law enforcement, right? While she was at work, she found out that Maki's parents reported her as missing, for 6 months now."_

My eyes went wide, and I just had to turn my head to the girl who was sitting next to me, I couldn't help but stared at her in disbelief. Maki-chan, who realized that I was looking at her, looked back at me, her eyebrow shot up in wonder.

" _Umi was frantic when she knew that, she knew of the fact that Maki somehow couldn't be contacted, but when she found out that Maki's parents reported her as missing….she immediately went to my home, because she knew if she told the others, they'd frea_ _k._ _S_ _he said she needed level-headed people."_

My eyes was still hard on Maki-chan, just in case so that she couldn't disappear on me, "Did…did you tell Umi and Nozomi that she…" My voice turned to whispering, so that the girl in front of me, who kept shooting questioning looks at me wouldn't get suspicious or anything.

" _I didn't tell Umi, but I did tell Nozomi. She actually told me to call you as soon as possible,_ _she said_ _because knowing you, you could do something,_ _especially_ _since it's about Maki. But I can only call you now because we were waiting for Umi to calm down and go home."_

… _.Okay, pry Maki-chan open it is._

I hardened my jaw as I squinted my eyes to the girl in question, "….Thanks for the info, Eli, I'll do something about it."

" _Wait, Nico, there must be a reason why she went missing, please don't do anything that will make her flee—"_ I quickly hang up the call and put my phone on the table.

"What? Was that Eli? What's with that look?" She asked, eyebrows knitted together.

I crossed my arms, "Well, Maki-chan, I think I'm done being patient."

"Huh?"

"I will ask again, what the hell happened to you? And no avoiding the topic, I need to know."

She was taken aback, "What the hell? I-I don't get it."

"Maki-chan," I gripped on the hem of her t-shirt really tight, as a safety measure in case she tried to bolt, " _You_ , have been reported missing for 6 months now, and I wanted to know why."

She widen her eyes. "How did you—Eli told you this?"

"Yes, she got the info from Umi, do you know that Umi is working in the law enforcement? Now tell me Maki-chan, why in the world would your parents reported you as miss—" I paused, realizing something. I squinted my eyes at her, and her eyes wandered away from me, as if afraid, "…you're running away from home, aren't you?"

Maki-chan responded by hunching her shoulders and hung her head low. Seeing how small she looked at the moment, I knew that I was right, Maki-chan ran away from home, for reasons that I thought I could guess.

"Oh my god, Maki-chan." I gasped, letting go of her t-shirt.

"I…I'm…" Finally came her voice, small, weak and she was cracking up.

My eyes soften, I bent down my head a little so I could see her face, "Your parents are that bad, huh?"

Her eyes were beginning to get glossy, but she kept blinking, in attempt to stop any tears from falling. Maki-chan bit her lower lip, then she nodded her head slightly, her head movement was so small that I almost missed it.

So, her parents really were the source of her pain, the source of why she looked so miserable. It seemed that Maki-chan was fed up with her parents, and that was why she ran away, she knew that words couldn't ever get through to her parents' thick skulls.

Maybe, I was just assuming, but I might not be so far off.

"Maki-chan…" I pulled back a little from her and reached for her shoulders. I pulled her towards me gently, and let her fall into my embrace.

"U-Ueeh?" She jumped in my arms, surprised at my sudden action.

I encircled my arms around her shoulders and put one hand on top of her head, stroking her red strands gently, "There-there." I whispered as I positioned my neck a little so that she could bury her face on my shoulder.

And she did, she actually buried her face on my shoulder and brought her arms around me, I could feel her hands clutching at my back, something about it screams desperate. Not long after, I could feel her body began to shake, and soon there was a muffled sound of a sobbing.

Ah, she finally cried.

When was the last time I saw this girl cried?

The poor girl was clutching me tighter, and her sobbing was getting louder. I reciprocated by pulling her even closer to me and kept stroking her head as gently as I could. While doing so, I whisper straight to her ear that 'it's okay'.

Seeing this girl whom always wear a tough exterior acting like this made my heart clenched. This girl who usually acted as if she was the strongest, actually broke down, in front of me. Like an overflowing dam, everything just poured out of her because she couldn't hold it any longer.

I couldn't see this girl, whom I always envy, breaking down like this. I wanted to help her, I was determined to help her in anyway I could. But I knew, in order for me to help her, she needed to cooperate with me, she needed to accept my hand.

So I waited, I wait for her overflowing emotions to die down. I sat there silently with her in my arms. Maki-chan felt so small and fragile.

When I could feel and hear her calming down, I realized that maybe it was the right time for me to speak, so I pulled back from her and beckoned her to look up to me. When she did, I cringed at how messy her face was, so I brought a hand to wipe her tears.

After cleaning what seems to be her last tear, I opened my mouth to say something, but I closed it immediately when I could see her face getting closer to mine, so close that I could feel her breath.

My lungs stopped functioning right away and I stared at her with wide eyes, while Maki-chan stared at me with this….odd look, a look that I didn't recognize. My body froze when I saw how her eyes bore into mine, just piercing straight into my eyes.

Not a word was spoken, not a noise was made, she just stared at me with a look I couldn't comprehend. A look that was mysterious to me, urging me to look into her for an answer. But instead of an answer, all I got was more questions, questions that I made in my head, and questions that I got from her eyes.

I definitely felt a mysterious connection right then. A connection that was made from our odd eye contact, it was something that I couldn't quite put, as I couldn't think of the terminology that was perfect for what I felt. What I knew for sure, was that there was something magnetic about the way she looked at me.

Her gaze was pulling me closer, but I was so frozen that I couldn't move an inch. Then, she pushed herself closer to me really slowly, strengthening this odd connection our eyes made. My heart started to beat faster and an incredibly tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach could be felt getting more intense the closer her face went to mine.

I felt like there was a bridge needed to be made between us, a bridge that we needed to cross so we could reach the other.

I couldn't think straight anymore, as my brain have stopped moving its gears.

When I was doing nothing but wait for whatever this bridge that was about to form between us, she stopped abruptly. I saw hesitation flashed in her eyes for a split moment, then she closed them before leaning her forehead to mine, groaning almost inaudibly as she did so. This broke our mysterious connection that we made with our eyes.

"…Thanks, Nico-chan." She whispered, sounding oddly out of breath and raspy. Her quiet, shaky voice finally broke the steady silence that felt like it was there since forever.

"H-Huh? Y…Yeah." I whispered back, also sounding out of breath because I just remembered how to breathe.

I didn't know if it was just me, or Maki-chan actually pushed me away from her slightly as if it was an urgent thing to do, and pulled herself far from me, creating a distance that felt huge between us.

I blinked dumbly, my mind was still blanking out, dumbfounded and confused at what just happened.

The moment Maki-chan's cheeks went beet red, she looked away, hiding her face from my line of sight. None of us spoke again, as we fell into another awkward silence. Then after a couple seconds of more silence, my brain finally began to function properly, and it reminded me how I was supposed to talk to her so I could help her.

So I tried to speak, but a lump in my throat prevent me from doing so. I had to clear my throat awkwardly in order for me to get my voice back.

"Hey…Maki-chan? Do you…want—uhh, some tea? Then—then can we talk more about you?" I said, totally sounded normal and not awkward at all, totally.

She nodded, "…Yeah." She spoke with a quiet voice, still not looking at me at all.

"Alright." I stood from my couch and went to the kitchen in a haste.

There in the kitchen, I felt like everything was exploding inside me. My hands began to shake and I could feel my cheeks were burning. I felt every ounce of energy left my body, thus causing me to stumble and I had to held onto my kitchen counter so I wouldn't fall.

 _Just what the hell was_ _ **that!?**_

 _Did Maki-chan just tried to…no, she didn't, did she?_

I exhaled shakily, one hand hovered on my chest, feeling my rapid beating heart through the thin fabric of my camisole. As my face continued to burn, I dug into my memories and replay whatever just happened in my mind.

It successfully turned my cheeks even hotter.

If my memories served me correctly, Maki-chan really did leaned in while she had this _look_. She gave me a look that was completely alien to me, a look that I have never seen on her face before. And that look locked me in place, it was scary, in a way.

The weird connection that I felt when she gave me that rapt gaze was something of an enigma to me. It pulled me in, it sucked all my attention. Like a magnet, I was attracted to it, to her eyes; the source of that connection.

So what was that connection exactly?

I shook my head, everything was a mess, my mind was still in a disarray. I needed to calm myself down before I could think about this clearly. Plus, didn't I offer Maki-chan a drink? I should make that tea.

Sighing deeply, I tried to stand straight, albeit still shaking a little bit. I slapped my cheeks with my hands to wake me up from my own tangled thoughts, and finally grabbed my kettle to make some tea.

As I waited for the water to boil, I tried hard to prevent myself from thinking about what just happened. Because there was an urgent matter that I needed to attend to, which was Maki-chan's problem. With that in mind, I reminded myself to put other matter aside, I could contemplate on that one enigma later on.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded to myself.

A sharp and loud whistle pierced my ears, indicating that the water had reached to its boiling point, and so I turned off the stove. With a swift move I began to make the tea, already used to it since I've been doing it all my life. Either I made it for my mom back home or I made it for Yuna-san, Eli, and Nozomi.

Staring at the cups of tea that were on top of the tray, I took another deep breath, calming myself down. Just the thought of facing Maki-chan again after all that debacle actually sped up my heart rate, sending chills down my spine and caused goosebumps to form on my entire body.

When I felt calm enough, I quickly grab the tray and walked to the living room where Maki-chan was.

When her figure finally made it into my view, I raised an eyebrow. There she sat with her elbows on her thighs, shoulders hunched, and her hands clenched in a fist. I watched her as she brought her fists to her forehead, hitting it softly, she mumbled something that I couldn't hear under her breath while she bury her face in her fists.

Seeing how Maki-chan seemed to be thinking deeply, I realized that I needed to do something to announce my arrival, so I stomped my feet audibly as I approached her. It worked, she noticed my loud footsteps and sat up straight on the couch.

I put down the tray on top of the table in front of the couch and put down both cups of tea before putting aside the tray. My eyes caught Maki-chan's gaze for a second, and it caused my heart to thudded really hard inside my chest and I couldn't help but look away from her as I could feel my cheeks grew hot yet again.

As I was trying to breathe properly, I sat down next to Maki-chan. I made sure there was a visible gap between us, because I couldn't keep my cool around her at a close proximity at the moment.

"Help yourself, Maki-chan." Amazingly, my voice was pretty steady when I said that, I breathed out in relief.

Maki-chan just nodded and stretched an arm out to grab the cup, she picked it up and blew on it before taking a sip. After watching her positive reaction to the tea, I also did the same. I sighed in content at how the warm substance went through my flaming throat.

After a couple more of sips I put the cup down, and leaned my back on the couch.

"So, Maki-chan," I started, my stomach was tingling the moment I called her name with my lips, "What did your parents do that you ran away from home?" I asked her, straight to the point.

She put her cup down and twirled the ends of her hair, "…Well," She paused to take a deep breath, preparing her heart before saying anymore, when she looked like she was finally ready, she let out a resigned sigh, "…My parents, as you probably know, _really_ wanted me to…someday take over the hospital."

I nodded at her, then she continued, "When you, Eli, and Nozomi graduated and we decided to break μ's up, I felt…empty, honestly." She sighed and leaned back on the couch, then sat facing me, "I love making music with you guys, I love…composing music. So I decided to try and actually study music seriously. I wanted to get into a music university, but…"

Frown made its way to my face, "Your parents noped and flipped?"

"…Yeah, you could say that. They forced me to apply at Toudai instead, for medical studies. I couldn't stop them."

I widen my eyes, "Wha—Toudai? THAT Toudai? Tokyo's number one university!?"

She nodded, "I got in, but I wasn't happy, so I…still pursue music behind their back, I composed music for some other school idols secretly." Then Maki-chan frowned, "But recently they finally found out about that, and decided to permanently banned me from touching my instruments for composing, they even sold my piano."

I covered my mouth with my hand, gasping, "No way…that's horrible."

"But that wasn't the trigger."

I blinked, I thought for sure that was what drove her away from her home, "That's not the only thing they did?" I asked, clearly curious, I wonder what actually triggered Maki-chan, what else did those douchebags of a parents did?

"No, that's all they did."

I gave her a confused look, so her trigger didn't come from her parents? I didn't get it.

"It was….it was me." She said, biting her lower lip.

"Huh? What did you do?" Was all I could say, I was still very confused.

"I realized something that…I knew my parents would react negatively to. Knowing that they would even be opposed to me being…me, I couldn't handle it." She answered with a low voice, almost a whisper.

"What exactly did you realize, Maki-chan?" I asked with a cocked eyebrow, not completely understanding her cryptic answer.

Maki-chan fell silent, she looked up at me and stared at me. Her rapt gaze lingered for what felt like forever, and it made my heart race in an incredible speed. After that eternity-like gazing, she shook her head before looking away, jaws clenched tight and eyes hard towards my wall.

"Maki-chan…?"

"Sorry, Nico-chan, this is the one thing I'd rather not say." She spoke with bitterness in her voice. I watched how her eyes glossed over once again, but this time she took a shaky deep breath and held her tears in.

I wanted to press further, I wanted to ask what exactly was it that really made her ran away.

I wanted to know.

But Maki-chan really look like she was on the verge of breaking down again, it was clear that she was serious about not wanting to tell me about this mysterious thing.

I felt irritated, because I was really hoping she would tell me everything. I was hoping that she trusted me enough to tell me all of her problems. I was silently hoping that she would ask me for help, instead of hiding this crucial information regarding her predicament.

Was it selfish of me to think that way? To feel irritated that Maki-chan didn't tell me everything?

 _Yeah, I am selfish._

It was undoubtedly a very selfish thought, I should've respect her personal space, I should've understand that there were some things she wanted to keep to herself. I knew, I understood, but this irritated feelings lingered regardless, and I had no idea why.

My inner turmoil just soured my mood even more, everything confused me to no end. It didn't feel good to not understand something, but I knew I would feel even worse if I pushed it too much and Maki-chan broke for real.

I honestly didn't want to, but it was necessary, so I didn't press the scarlet girl any further. I kept my mouth shut, letting the silence linger in the air on purpose this time, giving her some time to calm herself, since she still looked like she was fighting her own inner turmoil.

I've decided, whatever that mystery was, I would still be here to help her, I wanted to lessen her emotional burden. It was the least I could do, as her friend, as her senpai, and as her elder. Well, although there was only two years age gap between us.

As the silence still engulfed us, I stretched my arm out. Slowly, I brought my hand on top of her head and gave her soft red head a gentle stroke. I noted that she seemed to like getting patted in the head, so I thought this might calm her down.

The moment my hand made a contact with her head, I realized that there was this weird electrifying feeling from my hand, and that feeling was spreading into my entire body until the pit of my stomach, it caused my stomach to tighten a little. It was a really foreign feeling, but it wasn't unpleasant.

My eyes caught her reaction towards my action, and it just made the tickling feeling within me worsen.

Maki-chan's eyes twitched, they shown confusion before changing to understanding and content. Her eyes dropped down, but not all the way, just a tad, before she visibly leaning into my touch. I could almost hear her purr, but I knew that was all in my head, because I couldn't help but think that she acted like a cat, enjoying a loving pat on the head.

I kept patting her until I saw her visibly relaxed, indicating that I've put a stop to her inner turmoil. She looked like she enjoyed the pat even more now that she had calmed down, so I decided not to stop what I was doing as I opened my mouth, wanting to continue to speak about the matter at hand..

"Hey, Maki-chan? Can I ask more questions?"

Closing her eyes now, she nodded meekly. I couldn't help but smile at the sight, "Well, I'm just wondering….since you ran away from home, what have you been doing these past six months? Where do you live now?" I whispered with a soft voice. I didn't know why my voice turned to a whisper, it just felt appropriate.

I could see her tensed up a little, looking uncomfortable at my questions. To calm her down again, I brought my thumb to her temple, gently stroking her from there to the roots of her hair, I smiled in satisfaction when I could see that it worked like a charm.

She lowered her previously tensed shoulders, "I…managed to find a job, and since I ran away with some money, I managed to rent a small apartment." She answered with a whisper as well. I was surprised that her answer came rather smoothly, despite how uncomfortable she looked when I asked the questions.

I raised an eyebrow, "A job? What kind?" I asked, still with a whisper, since it seemed to be making her really calm.

The corners of her lips turned upward, "Composing music." She said, her voice lit up, sounding happy.

That answer made my face lit up, so she was able to at least still try to chase after her dreams, albeit by running away from home. I was honestly happy for her, so her life these past few months wasn't so miserable after all.

"To be specific, I work as a ghost composer. The people who hired me knew me as Hori Eriko." She continued.

I nodded in understanding, "That sounds cool, Maki-chan, although my line of work is definitely cooler." I chuckled, as I ruffled her hair, messing it up a little, and it made her groaned in protest, "So who are you working for? Some idols I knew perhaps?"

Maki-chan suddenly snapped her eyes open, and her face reddened 'till the tips of her ears. She didn't answer my question immediately as she froze on the couch. This unexpected reaction made me tilted my head, confused as to why she reacted that way.

"O-Oh…uhh…" She stuttered, her fingers begin to twirl some strands of her hair fervently. I just shot her a questioning look, expecting her to answer me.

She bit her lower lip and mumbled something, I frowned at her, "What was that Maki-chan?"

Her eyes began to wander around, and her cheeks went even redder, if that was possible. "I work f-for….some e-eroge companies."

A beat.

"Huh?" I stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

She glanced at me shyly, before looking away again, "W-What?"

My lips trembled, "E-Eroge as in…those dirty Visual Novels and such?"

She flinched, "…Y-Yes?"

I pulled my hand from her head almost instantly, "I'm taking back what I just said, that is _not_ cool Maki-chan."

She snapped her head at me, "Sh-Shut up, it's easier to get a job at those kinda companies than the mainstream kind since I started out as a blank slate. No apparent experience and all that so the mainstream companies and agencies turn a blind eye on me." She muttered shyly as she continued to twirl her hair furiously.

I raised an eyebrow, "Why did you start from a blank slate?"

Her face color returned to normal before she scoffed at me, "Duh, I need to stay under the radar, I really don't want my parents to drag me back to…" She frowned deeply, "...that prison called Nishikino household." She mumbled lowly, but not low enough for me to not hear that.

I hummed in understanding, I guess Maki-chan really had no choice. She had to start from the very bottom of the industry, the dirty part of it. Honestly, I thought that she didn't deserve to be there, she deserved more than just composing songs for some porn, but it was something I couldn't do anything about.

Then my eyes widen in realization.

 _Unless…_

"Hey, Maki-chan, I'm wondering…" I started, Maki-chan shot me a quizzical look, "How about you work for me?"

She was taken aback at my sudden offer. She cupped her chin as she fell silent. She appeared to be thinking about my offer deeply.

"Well…it's a very interesting offer, but can you even choose who work for you?" She finally spoke after awhile.

I scratched my cheek, my face was turning into a scowl. Maki-chan had a point, it wasn't up to me on who could become my composer, it was all up to my agency, or my manager, since Yuna-san is really good with convincing her higher-ups.

The closest thing I could do on trying to get her in was through Yuna-san. But knowing her, she would dig around Maki-chan's life before even considering her worthy of my team, no matter if Maki-chan was my friend or my former groupmate. And that meant, Yuna-san knowing Maki-chan's predicament.

 _Yuna-san would definitely reject her._

Then I thought about getting her in as Hori Eriko, her alias. Again, Yuna-san would find out that this Hori Eriko had only been working for some eroge companies, and that scary manager of mine would probably reject her without even thinking. Being a perfectionist she was, she really wanted whoever got involved with me to be clean of any drama and had a good resume.

My face fell, and I pouted slightly. I really wanted to get Maki-chan out of the dark and dirty pit she was in, but I really had no other idea how. I groaned and slouched on the couch as I looked at the scarlet haired girl with a dissatisfied face, feeling annoyed that I really couldn't help much.

She sighed, "Thought so…" she averted her eyes and slouched on the couch as well.

Now that I knew what had been happening in Maki-chan's life, I could feel my curiosity finally sated, despite the fact that she still hid one thing from me. At least I finally knew what had caused her to look so miserable and sad, and I finally knew how hard she was trying to struggle away from the grasp of her parents. And I could just force her to tell me about that one thing she hid later on anyways, she wouldn't be able to deny me.

The overwhelming feeling of worry began to wash away, and instead in its place was a sense of pride. As if watching my own younger sibling growing up in front of my eyes.

A smile crept up on my face, feeling rather giddy. I sat up straight on the couch and stretched my arm out to grab my cup of tea and drank the rest of the lukewarm liquid. For some reason, the tea I made taste even better now and it warmed me up even though it wasn't that warm anymore, I wonder why.

I put the cup down, making a thud sound on the table. This alerted Maki-chan and then I watched her eyes wandered around the table, staring at her own cup for a second before her face turned into realization and immediately drank the rest of her tea in one gulp. She was probably being considerate by not wasting the tea I made for her, I chuckled at that.

"Thanks…for the tea." She said in a soft voice as she twirled her hair with her index finger, "And for listening to my problems." She murmured the last sentence, obviously embarrassed.

I beamed a smile to her, "Of course, I'm your awesome senpai after all!" I said as I put my hand on her head again and ruffled her hair gently, this caused Maki-chan's face to explode into a tomato as she grumbled under her breath.

"Nico-chan." She suddenly called my name as I was still stroking her head.

"Mm-hm?"

She grabbed my hand that was on her head and held it tight in hers as she pulled it down, bringing it to her chest, practically hugging my hand. My heart jumped within my ribcage, and the blood in my cheeks dilate in response. The mysterious feelings and connection I had earlier came crashing back to me real hard, throwing my mind into chaos.

"I intend to climb in this industry, I intend to grow as a composer. I'm confident we will meet at the top so…" She said with a voice a tad lower in pitch than usual as she leaned in to me, giving me this _look_ yet again, "…wait for me, Nico-chan. B-But I don't do this for you or anything, I do this for myself."

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't blink, and I couldn't look away from her flustered yet determined gaze. Blood was rushing all over my body, and a massive electrifying feeling were spreading, burning and twisting my insides. It was painful in a way, but I didn't feel bad or uncomfortable, it was a very odd feeling that I just couldn't seem to understand.

Finding myself unable to speak, I nodded awkwardly to her as a response. I looked away from her eyes and immediately stood up from the couch, pulling my hand away from her in the process. I went to grab the cups with shaky hands and put it in the tray, intending to clean it in the kitchen, but a hand to my wrist stopped me.

"I'll do it, I haven't been helping you." She said as she tighten her grip on me. The grip sent a wildfire through my body, and it made my heart clenched really tight.

Her hold upon my wrist sent another goosebumps all over my body, and it made me panicked somehow. It made me to pull my wrist away from her grab rather strongly, this action of mine caused her to cock her eyebrow at me.

Realizing what I just did, I spoke quickly, "I-I can do it myself, a baby like y-you can just sit down, hmph!" I stuttered, as I was helplessly trying to steady myself. The rushing of blood inside my system wasn't calming down even a little, and it drove me nuts.

Maki-chan frowned, "Jeez, don't be stubborn, and I'm not a baby!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not, you are!"

I scoffed, "What? I'm clearly the best adult around! I'm the number one idol after all."

"Just because you're the number one idol doesn't mean you're the best adult!"

"Nu-uh, it's _because_ I'm the number—Wait, did you just admit that I'm the number one idol?" I smirked at her.

She was startled, "Wha—no, that's not what I mean!" She grumbled lowly, before standing up and just snatched the tray from my hand, "A-Anyways, I still wanted to help, not because I feel bad for imposing or anything!" She made a mad dash towards the kitchen. I blinked dumbly, surprised that she could actually steady the cups on the tray while dashing away so fast.

Seconds later, I could feel my body beginning to feel hot, and I felt weak in the knees. I dropped down onto the floor and put my head on top of the table, letting out a long breath. I could feel my cheeks were burning, and my heart starting to pick up its pace.

 _What is wrong with me?_

Grumbling incoherently under my breath, I ruffled my hair out of frustration. Not understanding something was annoying and definitely frustrating as hell. I hate it, I don't like it when I don't know something, there's supposed to be nothing that the great Niconii wouldn't know.

But I really didn't have a clue about what the hell was going on with me.

My body kept reacting weirdly, for reasons unknown to me. And it started to happen the moment Maki-chan came back after going awol. Something about her force me out of my usual self, and I didn't like it. But I couldn't lie and say that it felt unpleasant, something about all of this was pleasant, and I didn't know why, it was what I honestly felt.

"Aah! Jeez!" I gumbled again under my breath before standing up. I almost ran to grab my towel and my clothes before going to the bathroom in a furious dash. I've decided to take another bath, though in the end I only took a quick hot shower.

If there was one thing that relaxed, it was my aching muscle. My mind was most definitely still tense.

After finishing the shower, drying myself and wore some comfortable nightwear, I could see how messy my bathroom was, since my clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor. Sighing, I begin to collect them and walked towards the hamper. I was about to drop my clothes there, but stopped when I could see an unfamiliar fabrics in it.

Maki-chan's clothes.

Feeling my cheeks grew a little bit hot, I shook my head and grabbed her clothes before dumping mine into the hamper. I stared at the messy and crumpled clothes in my hand, I could see there were a few mysterious stains, perhaps something like grease and dirt. I frowned deeply at how dirty Maki-chan's clothes was, this wasn't something a rich princess would wear at all. I still remember Maki-chan was this neat, stylish girl.

Before, I couldn't even imagine Maki-chan wearing something undignified like this.

Not to mention...

"Ugh, stinks!" I brought the clothes away from me the moment a foul smell hit my nose.

Feeling irritated, I stomped out of my bathroom and strutted towards where my washing machine was. I threw in her clothes and turned on the machine.

 _There, I can't believe Maki-chan can live with this dirty clothes._

I hummed in satisfaction when I could hear the audible whiring of the machine, the sign that such dirty objects were currently being washed clean. I hope this was enough to clean all the mysterious stains and stench on it.

Realizing that it was useless to wait around until the washing was done, I strutted away from there. I went to look for my smartphone, forgetting where I last put it. After a minute of wandering around my bedroom, I finally remembered where the last place I put the thing; the living room, and so I pattered my way towards the living room.

There I saw Maki-chan sat down comfortably on the couch, with her own smartphone on her ear. She seemed to be in a middle of a call. I couldn't help but feeling curious about who she was calling, so instead of grabbing my phone on the table I backed away to hide in a corner to eavesdrop. I knew it was rude, but curiousity overwhelmed me.

I mean, Maki-chan was on the run, so who would call her?

"Yeah...haven't gotten a call back from Guilty Grey, it seems that I didn't get the job there." I heard her spoke, in a relaxed, informal way. So it was safe to assume that whoever was calling her was probably her friend, or co-worker, not her higher-ups or someone from a company she was working with at the moment.

Plus from what she just said, it seemed that she was currently looking for a company to hire her, so who was she calling? Honestly, I couldn't imagine Maki-chan having a friend while she was on the run.

I watched Maki-chan straightened her back, "No, wait, is that okay?" She asked, her voice obviously lit up in happiness. I raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why she sounded a wee bit happy.

"Well, I would be grateful if you really could. Liar-hard is a pretty good company, I heard. Their VNs are usually not that...creepy." I could see the tips of her ears going red.

Oh, was this someone offering Maki-chan a job? Huh, I wonder who this person was. It seemed that Maki-chan found a friend of sort that could hook her up to some company. Now I wanna know how she found this person.

"Thanks, I'll be waiting for further confirmation. Uh-huh, good night." She finally hang up the call. Right after she did a small fist pump, which I found really cute because I've never seen this side of her before. I guess Maki-chan was feeling really happy.

Seeing that there was no need for me to hide anymore, I walked back towards the living room, finally grabbing my phone this time. After that, I sat next to Maki-chan—again consciously making a gap between us—and began to fiddle around my phone, specifically my social media to tweet some gratitude towards my fans for making the live yesterday possible.

Smilling at the words of gratitude I just typed, I pressed send. I giggled a little, feeling happiness bubbling up within me.

A tapping sound woke me up from my own small world, I look to my side to find Maki-chan also fiddling with her phone. I didn't think she had an active social media at the moment, so perhaps she was just browsing something on the net.

 _Speaking of social media._

"Hey, Maki-chan."

She just silently stared at me, with a questioning look. I pointed at her phone, "You know, I don't have your contact. I reckon you threw away your old phone along with the number?"

She glanced at her phone, "Oh, ahh...yeah. You want my current number?"

I nodded, "Also, your LINE ID."

A frown formed on her forehead, "I...don't have LINE."

I raised an eyebrow, "In this day and age? Gimme that." I snatched her phone from her hand, resulting in a protest, but I pushed her face away and started to mess around with her phone.

I heard her grumbled, "Well I find no use of it since I'm..."

"You need connections, dummy. Everyone uses LINE these days, and in your line of work, connection is important right?" I said as I was downloading the LINE app to her barren phone. Her smartphone barely had any application in it, not even a game. As the app was downloading, I went ahead and grabbed my own phone to add her number to my contact.

"Well I'm...trying to stay under the radar as much as I can, you know."

"Just in case, Maki-chan, and I can contact you easily this way. I won't let you go, not after you told me about your situation." I sighed as I fiddle with it some more, registering her, adding my ID and all that before finally giving her phone back.

She took it and stared at the screen, a frown began to form, "...'MakiMakiMaa'? Wait, did you just seriously registered me as this?"

"What? Got a problem?"

Her frown deepen, "Of course! I'm known as Hori Eriko right now, duh! What if someone—"

I scoffed and waved dismissively, "Calm down Maki-chan, nobody will know. It's just the ID, you can change your display name to Hori Eriko, and we're the only ones that knows what that ID means. Other people will just think of it as some random words, plus, it sounds like my own catchphrase. Nico Nico Nii!" I did my signature pose and beamed a wide grin at her, only to be responded by an unamused look.

"Urgh, I don't get you!"

I stuck my tongue out to her before giggling evilly. Maki-chan grumbled under her breath as she twirled her hair out of frustration. It was oddly satisfying to tease Maki-chan, her reaction was just the best.

Pocketing my phone, I stood up, "Maki-chan, since it's getting late, I think it's almost time for my beauty sleep." I paused a little, "Oh, you can sleep on the bed with me, since I don't have any futon." After I said that, a train of imaginations of Maki-chan sleeping next to me passed my mind, and it kinda shook my heart. I tried hard to breathe, stay calm and empty my mind, I didn't understand why the thought of Maki-chan sleeping next to me made me felt...weird.

She looked startled, "Ugh, I haven't even said anything about sleeping over." She sighed exasperatedly, "But I...I can sleep on the couch." She said, with a weak voice, I noted that her cheeks went pink.

I frowned, "No, hell no will I let a guest, especially my old partner to sleep on the couch. My bed is big enough for two you know. Earlier, we slept together just fine." I shot at her before glancing away, "Although I became a living teddy bear somehow."I mumbled to myself.

Maki-chan made a flustered look, "That's not the..." She mumbled something under her breath, and I couldn't hear her.

I raised an eyebrow, "What was that?"

"Nothing." She grumbled, "Fine, fine, jeez."

I grinned victoriously, and it only made Maki-chan twirling her hair with a defeated look. I knew very well that nobody could defy the almighty, and the greatest idol in the entire universe; Niconii!

"Okay, I'm gonna go hang up your clothes before going to bed. You can go ahead and sleep without me, Maki-chan."

"...Wait, you washed my clothes?

I sighed, "Yeah, because it was dirty and smelly." I scrunched my nose when I remember how filthy her clothes was. "I can't believe you can live with dirty clothes, Maki-chan. I know you live all alone and all now, but don't you actually…you know, wash? Both body and clothes." I frowned deeply at her, clearly irritated with Maki-chan's way of living.

She flinched, then she scratched her nape nervously, "I…was working on some soundtracks in my apartment for a…an eroge for 3 days straight, since today is the deadline."

I raised an eyebrow, "Huh, is that why you were sleeping in that café? You were just finished with it and have just given your work to the company?" I asked her, she nodded in affirmation.

 _Ah, if I'm not wrong, there_ _ **is**_ _an eroge company around that area. What was it…..Yurun Yurun I think?_

That company wanted to hire me waaay back then when I just started to work my way up as a pro idol. They wanted me to sing the opening and ending theme of an eroge, which my manager rejected, if my memory served me right.

 _Wait, today is the deadline? And didn't she get a call when she was asleep at the café…._

"Maki-chan, how did that one go?"

The red haired girl blinked, "Huh? Oh, they called me just earlier, saying that they were happy with it and will give me the money next time I go to their office."

I couldn't stop the smile that made its way to my lips, I was honestly feeling happy for her, since it seemed that her job as a ghost composer was working out just fine. Although she was working for some…rather dirty stuffs, but it was still a legit job nonetheless.

It was a start for little baby Maki-chan, as the unknown Hori Eriko.

My right hand made its way to her head, and gave her a gentle stroke. This made the little baby Maki-chan's face all red with her eyes widen as wide as saucers.

Something was growing increasingly warm within me, and it felt good.

I let go of Maki-chan and giggled, "Good job, Maki-chan." I said before I skipped my way to where my washing machine laid.

"I-I don't get you!" Was the last thing I heard before I went around a corner to walk towards the washing machine and went to hang up Maki-chan's dirty clothes.

After I was done with it, I made my way towards the living room, to find that Maki-chan was no longer there. Thinking that she might already be in the bedroom, I turned off all the lights before going there as well.

There, I saw a huge lump on my bed. I raised an eyebrow when I could see some strands of red hair peeking out from under the blanket. Closing the door behind me softly, I made a beeline towards my bed, to the opposite side of where Maki-chan laid.

Picking up the blanket slowly as to not disturb Maki-chan in case she was already asleep, I slipped under it and wriggle around a little to make myself comfortable.

When I finally felt comfortable with my position, I turned my head to my side, staring at the back of the troublesome scarlet baby who was burying herself under the blanket. I could also see that she was curling into a ball, as if to make herself small.

I frowned when I noticed her breathing was a little bit uneven.

My hand reached for her back, "Maki-chan? Are you still awake?" I whispered lowly, just enough for her to hear me.

The moment my hand touched her back, her body twitched and I could tell that her breath hitched, I raised an eyebrow at this reaction.

She slowly turned around, and then she let out a breathy, "What…?"

My lips went dry immediately because of how she looked at the moment. Her hair was oddly disheveled as if she just rolled around the bed or something, her face was tomato red, and I could literally feel her body began to emit incredible heat even though I no longer touch any part of her body.

And her eyes, she had that _look_ again.

Her eyes were half-lidded, and her lips were parting a little. I couldn't help but stare at her her with my mouth agape, because something about what I see in front of me made my heart throbbing wildly within.

"I…I was just a-asking." I croaked, I felt a lump on my throat that just wouldn't go away, and it was hard to breathe so I sounded kinda out of breath.

"…I see." Came another breathy whisper.

Maki-chan's amethyst eyes moved a little, but it didn't leave me, which mean she was observing me, more specifically my face. At this I felt blood rushing in my cheeks, reddening it. I didn't know why my body kept reacting weirdly like this, but it felt….nice.

Something was definitely wrong with me.

I watched Maki-chan's eyes focused on something on my face. The moment her eyes stop at that one spot, her eyes changed into something that I didn't know how to describe. Her eyes softened, but it was…dark-looking, as if clouded with something, was the only thing I could come up with to describe the look she had.

My breath hitched, and my lungs couldn't function properly when I realized what was it that she was staring at.

It was my lips.

My ears perked when they caught a sound of rustling. Realizing that it was the sound of fabrics rustling, I saw Maki-chan inched her body closer towards me. My heart was thumping faster and faster the closer she get, and I didn't make a single move to back away even though she was intruding my personal space.

My body froze, my mind was a mess, but I knew one thing for sure; I didn't want to move away. I had no clue why, I just did.

Goosebumps spread all over my body when I could feel her hot breath tickling my skin because of how close she was. Her eyes moved away from my lips and to my eyes, staring at me with that indescribable, magnetic look.

Then there was another rustle before I saw her hand reaching out slowly, and gently touch my cheek. My cheeks went aflame at the touch and an electric feeling spread from my cheek to the pit of my stomach.

I felt a little pull from the hand on my cheek, and I followed along without a second thought. My body was moving by itself without my consent because my brain had stopped functioning long ago.

I watched her face getting closer.

And closer.

* * *

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_

* * *

 **A/N: I intended to make this a one-shot, but it's getting way too long so I split it up. This will either become a two-shot or three-shot, depends on how long I made the next part.**

 **I made a lot of shoutout to some eroge publishers that released yuri VNs, and Uomi Yuna is also a shoutout to a certain character from a certain yuri VN, can you guess what are they and where is she from?**

 **And...about Maki's alias. Do you know that Pile's (Maki's seiyuu) real name is Hori Eriko? Hahaha XD**

 **See you all in the next chapter!**


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